Young Karl Marx: communism and critique of German philosophy before Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Abstract

Abstract In Marxism studies, Karl Marx’s transition to communism is a fundamental issue. The period, from the end of Rheinische Zeitung (March, 1843) to the publication of Deutsche–Französische Jahrbücher (February, 1844), is an important bridging phase to understand subsequent Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and the whole development of young Marx’s cognition of communism. But existing studies have not paid sufficient attention to this period or to the entire texts as a whole, nor have they properly evaluated and explored the theme of “communism”. If we return to Marx’s four major theoretical texts from that period, with young Marx’s critique of German philosophy as intellectual background, we will find that, young Marx initially reconstructed his philosophical base and established a human-centered theoretical framework. During the process, meanwhile, Marx carried out another critique on the prevailing communism in the unique form of “implicit dialogue”, and demonstrated a communism perception different from both scientific communism and philosophical communism. Even so, this period still represents a crucial transitional stage in Marx’s cognitive transformation of communism, it already contains the seeds and directions for the subsequent theoretical development.