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This article contests Louis Althusser's claim that the mature Marx abandoned humanism. I argue that Marx's commitment to humanism is continuous from his early work to his later work. Indeed, it is impossible to understand Marx's mature work without reference to the humanist ideas he developed in his early work.
Key Words: Capitalism, Alienation, Liberation
Humanism can be traced back at least as far as the famous claim made by the Greek philosopher Protagoras that human beings are the measure of all things. As suggested by its origins, humanism has generally involved the normative valorization of human beings at the expense of divine and other nonhuman beings. On this basis, I will use the term "humanism" to refer to a certain type of normative theory-one that valorizes human beings as such, and that makes ethical or moral claims on behalf of all human beings, on the basis of some conception of that which is specifically appropriate for human beings.1
Prior to the publication of Marx's early works, Marxism was seen primarily as a scientific theory of history. In the post-World War II era, when Marx's early works became widely available, it became clear that the young Marx was a humanist. In his doctoral dissertation, written between 1839 and 1841, he maintains that philosophy rejects all "heavenly and earthly gods who do not recognize that man's consciousness is the highest divinity" (Lefebvre 1969, 11). Later, in "A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right: Introduction," written in 1843-4, Marx ties humanism to a political project: "The critique of religion ends in the doctrine that man is the supreme being for man; thus it ends with the categorical imperative to overthrow all conditions in which man is a debased, enslaved, neglected, contemptible being" (1977a, 137).
Still later, in The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx uses the concept of a human essence to ground both his critique of capitalism and his conception of communism. He argues that, under capitalism, human beings are estranged or alienated from themselves. Communism involves the return of human beings to themselves (1964, 135).2
The discovery of the humanism of the young Marx led to a significant revitalization of French Marxism in the post-World War II era. Jean-Paul Sartre,...