Table of Contents

* Abbreviations * Introduction * Themes from the Young Hegelians * Feuerbach's and Marx's Complaint against Philosophy * The Interest of These Texts * Chapter by Chapter * Feuerbach's Critique of Christianity * The Critique of Christianity * The Method of The Essence of Christianity * Comparisons * The Geistiger Naturforscher * Feuerbach's Critique of Philosophy * The Status of Philosophy * The Method of the Critique of Philosophy * The Content of the Critique of Philosophy * Problems * Antecedents * Final Comment * Bruno Bauer * Self-Consciousness * State and Civil Society * The Critique of Religion * Bauer's Method * Assessment * The 1844 Marx I: Self-Realization * Species Being: Products * Species Being: Enjoyments * The Human Relation to Objects * Species Being: Immortality * The Human Self-Realization Activity * The 1844 Marx II: The Structure of Community * Completing One Another * Mediation with the Species *3 Digression on Community * The 1844 Marx III: The Problem of Justification * The Workers' Ignorance of Their True Nature * The Problem of Justification * The Problem of Communists' Ends and Beliefs * Marx's 1844 Critique of Philosophy * The Problem of the Present * The Theses on Feuerbach * Fundamental Relations/Orientations * Thesis Eleven * Labor * The Practical-Idealist Reading * The Problem of the First Step * Thesis Six * The German Ideology I: More Anti-Philosophy * Some General Comments * The Attack on the Young Hegelian * Empirical Verification * Anti-Philosophy I * Anti-Philosophy II * Transformation * The German Ideology II: The Picture of the Good Life and the Change from 1844 * Division of Labor * Community * Self-Activity * The Change from 1844 * The German Ideology III: The Critique of Morality (and the Return to Philosophy) * What Is the Problem with Morality? * The (Weak) Sociological Thesis * The Strong Sociological Thesis and the Structural Thesis * Morality and Moral Philosophy under Communism * Can The German Ideology Justify a Condemnation of Capitalism? * Returning to Philosophy * Conclusion * Notes * Index

About the Author

Daniel Brudney is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago.

Reviews

[Marx's Attempt to Leave Philosophy] is plainly the work of a thoughtful and intelligent philosopher. The discussions of Bruno Bauer and Marx's writings of 1844-6, in particular, are valuable resources for students of German philosophy of the 1840s. -- Brian Leiter * Times Literary Supplement *
Brudney's work offers some fascinating insights into the world of the Young Hegelians from whence Marx came. It also makes some subtle points about the epistemology of moral theory and about the communitarian aspects of Marx's vision that are important for contemporary philosophy. -- R. Hudelson * Choice *