Abstract

The essay is a polemical engagement with Karl Marx’s early writing “On the Jewish Question” as it traces its arguably Feuerbachian origin and influence. Althusser in his book For Marx allows us to recognize this imprint of Feuerbach in the writings of the young Marx yet also falls short of determining what “On the Jewish Question” conveys in the last instance. As the essay navigates this contested terrain of interpreting Marx’s key writing, the importance of revisiting Feuerbach’s influence on the young Marx is underscored vis-à-vis Bauer’s impoverished Hegelianism in full display in his polemic concerning the emancipation of the Jews. Towards the concluding section, we will connect Marx’s concrete-materialist form of critique with which he treated Bauer’s polemics to contemporary forms of philosophical materialism in relation to the overlapping logics of late capitalism today.