Young Karl Does Headstands

In the current postcommunist era (i.e., outside China and Cuba), as the effect of Marxism on social and political theory has declined, the times are perhaps propitious for a return to Marx’s writings. They might now be debated in a more philosophical atmosphere,one less charged by claims and counter-claims to political orthodoxy. This ambience should be especially hospitable to the writings of the young Marx, for he was then in his most overtly philosophical mood.The writings of this period can perhaps now be examined without the overriding concern of how scientific, or how truly or how continuously, Marxist they are.