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Page count: 240

In classical political philosophy (for example, the theories of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau) an important role is assigned to a concept of human nature , and such a concept is also commonly to be found in ordinary arguments about politics and morality. Marx comes to grips with such views j and a number of other aspects of social philosophy, in his early writings, particularly the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and The German Ideology . One of the central themes of this thesis is the attempt to expound and defend the view that Marx presents as an alternative to traditional theories of human nature, his doctrine of essence . A distinction is made between 'the essence of man' and 'man's essence' : the first has to do with questions of philosophical method and it is argued that, for Marx, the second is an historical fact, what I call a developing constant . In order to show how Marx's doctrine of essence typifies his philosophical vision, this thesis also explores the Subject- Object and Individual-Society distinctions, and the meanings of Social Determinism. In passing (though this is of considerable importance), there emerge a number of interesting resemblences between the philosophical attitudes of Marx and Wittgenstein. Of course, this thesis in no way purports to be an exhaustive treatment of Marx's thought. But it does suggest some reasons for thinking that Marx is both more interesting and more defensible when we depart from the usual assessment of his thought as a formal metaphysical system. One of the principle merits of Marx's theory is that it enables us, in a certain sense, to tEfiscend theory and reach what Hegel called "the spiritual daylight of the present.