The Young Karl Marx: German Philosophy, Modern Politics, and Human Flourishing: 81 (Ideas in Context, Series Number 81)

The Young Karl Marx is an innovative and important study of Marx's early writings. These writings provide the fascinating spectacle of a powerful and imaginative intellect wrestling with complex and significant issues, but they also present formidable interpretative obstacles to modern readers. David Leopold shows how an understanding of their intellectual and cultural context can illuminate the political dimension of these works. An erudite yet accessible discussion of Marx's influences and targets frames the author's critical engagement with Marx's account of the emergence, character, and (future) replacement of the modern state. This combination of historical and analytical approaches results in a sympathetic, but not uncritical, exploration of such fundamental themes as alienation, citizenship, community, anti-semitism, and utopianism. The Young Karl Marx is a scholarly and original work which provides a radical and persuasive reinterpretation of Marx's complex and often misunderstood views of German philosophy, modern politics, and human flourishing. Karl Marx's early writings provide the fascinating spectacle of a powerful and imaginative intellect wrestling with complex and significant issues, but present formidable interpretative obstacles to modern readers. David Leopold shows how an understanding of their intellectual and cultural context can illuminate the political dimension of these works. "This is by far the best book on the young Marx that I have read since the pioneering studies of the 1960s and 1970s. In scholarly terms, it is incomparably better. I can only hope that the book will have the success it deserves not least because it has upgraded the level of scholarship and intellectual nuance that future discussions of Marx will require, in particular the need to get to grips in detail with the political context through which Marx's early writings emerged." —Terrell Carver, University of Bristol "The book is refreshingly free of a number of misplaced redemptive compulsions, especially on the heels of insistent gestures to the early Marx in the work of many Hegelian Marxists ..." — Journal of Politics Cover 1 About the Book 3 Series: Ideas in Context 6 Title Page 7 Copyright 8 Dedication 9 Contents 11 Acknowledgements 13 A note on language, references, and translation 15 1. Introduction 17 The ‘discovery’ of the early writings 17 Their contested status 21 Additional obstacles 24 Human nature and the modern state 26 Doubts and ambitions 28 Organisation and argument 31 2. German philosophy 33 The 1843 kritik 35 Traumgeschichte and modernity 38 Heine (and paris) 42 Traumgeschichte and hegel’s rechtsphilosophie 48 Hegel’s metaphysics 50 What is dead: marx’s critical response 63 What hegel’s insight is not 72 The lineaments of the modern social world 78 What is living: hegel’s empirical insight 85 The failure of hegelian mediation 90 The continuing relevance of the kritik 98 A (brief ) digest 112 3. Modern politics 116 Introduction to bauer 117 Bauer and judaism 125 Bauer and real freedom 131 Bauer and emancipation 136 Reconstructing bauer’s concerns 145 The preconditions of the modern state 150 Christianity and the modern state: the positive analogy 155 Christianity and the modern state: the negative analogy 161 Marx and rights 166 Antisemitism and jewish self-hatred 179 A (brief ) digest 196 4. Human flourishing 199 The structure of human emancipation 200 Feuerbach’s critique of religion and philosophy 202 Feuerbach and politics 219 Feuerbach and marx 234 Marx and human nature 239 A zoon politikon 250 Human flourishing 257 Institutional fragments 261 The end of politics 270 Marx and rousseau 278 Marx and saint-simon 287 A (brief ) digest 293 5. Epilogue 295 Definitional preliminaries 296 Marx’s (qualified) approval of utopianism 298 Marx’s (qualified) disapproval of utopianism 304 The necessity of blueprints 309 A last word 311 Bibliographical note 314 Index 326

The Young Karl Marx is an innovative and important study of Marx's early writings. These writings provide the fascinating spectacle of a powerful and imaginative intellect wrestling with complex and significant issues, but they also present formidable interpretative obstacles to modern readers. David Leopold shows how an understanding of their intellectual and cultural context can illuminate the political dimension of these works. An erudite yet accessible discussion of Marx's influences and targets frames the author's critical engagement with Marx's account of the emergence, character, and (future) replacement of the modern state. This combination of historical and analytical approaches results in a sympathetic, but not uncritical, exploration of such fundamental themes as alienation, citizenship, community, anti-semitism, and utopianism. The Young Karl Marx is a scholarly and original work which provides a radical and persuasive reinterpretation of Marx's complex and often misunderstood views of German philosophy, modern politics, and human flourishing.

This text presents a study of Karl Marx's early writings. They provide the fascinating spectacle of a powerful and imaginative intellect wrestling with complex and significant issues, but they also present formidable interpretative obstacles to modern readers