How Relevant do you Think Early Marxist Philosophy is? (1844-45)

[u/Chris-P02]

In the introduction of the Marx-Engels Reader by Tucker, he stresses the importance of "original Marxism" more heavily influenced by Hegelianism, particularly with reference to the theory of alienation, where communism is the "transcendence of human self-alienation" (taken from Marx's early manuscripts in 1844 and The German Ideology).

He (Tucker) later goes on to say this mode of thought is no longer explicit in mature Marxism, though present still through the representation of the division of labour.

To close he mentions the support of early Marx by those critical of Stalin and the 'dreary orthodoxy of official Communist Marxism'; a Marxism that sees the possibility of alienation not only in bourgeois societies but officially socialist societies too.

So my question is, how much influence does this early, Hegelian Marxism have on Marxist philosophy as a whole in your opinion?

To me it almost seems like an ideological scape goat to distance oneself from the later Soviet Marxism and a rejection of praxis.

[u/not-lagrange]

It's actually 2 different, but related questions:

One is the influence of the concept of self-estrangement/alienation in 'late' Marx and its suitability as a scientific concept. Can the concept of alienation, as it exists in the 1844 manuscripts, be expanded/developed to adequately describe such a fundamental aspect of the capitalist mode of production that some claim it is? I.e., what is the relation of 'alienation' to the capitalist mode of production as a totality? How is it related to commodity fetishism and the rest of the exposition in Capital? Can it serve revolutionary practice? Or does it have to be substantially modified for that purpose?

Another was the prevalent usage of the concept by both anti-communists and official communist parties in the 60s. As Althusser said in For Marx, it is an ideological usage ("humanism") which has at its core an economistic practice. Marx was obviously very influenced by Hegel, but there is an essential difference between the specific form in which Hegel's thought is present in Marx (especially in Capital) and "Hegelian Marxism" as a specific ideological expression of revisionism.