分析的马克思主义兴起后的十余年里，社会主义历经曲折，资本主义势头不减，且兴盛的当代自由主义政治哲学为资本主义制度竭力辩护。现实和理论的双重挑战促使分析的马克思主义者为社会主义的前途命运寻求对策，而当今西方社会的深刻变化使他们对基于实证分析的社会主义必然性论证丧失信心，因此转向了在经典马克思主义研究中不受重视的道德和政治哲学领域，诉诸“道德工程”来推动社会主义的实现。分析的马克思主义的政治哲学转向，增强了马克思主义的时代感和对现实问题的解释力，但这种转向的致命伤在于，在否定必然性、强调规范论证的道路上走得过远，纯粹将社会主义的实现寄托于抽象的道德辩护之上，成为一种马克思曾经批判过的脱离现实基础的道德主义。

In the one or two decades after the rise of analytical Marxism, socialism experienced strong challenges. In the meantime, capitalism was developing steadily and contemporary liberal political philosophy provided moral defenses for capitalism. Under these circumstances, analytical Marxists were highly concerned with the future of socialism. Due to the profound changes in modern western society, they have lost faith in the necessity of socialism based on empirical analysis. So they turned to the field of moral and political philosophy, which was ignored in classical Marxism, in order to realize socialism through “ethical project”. Such a theoretical turn enhanced the current feature and explanatory power of Marxism. But its deadly flaw lies in the fact that it built socialism solely on abstract moral defense and thus became a kind of moralism detached from its realistic basis, which was already criticized by Marx.