Can Early Marx Ground His Critique of Capitalism?

The period between 1843 and 1845 marks an important and distinctively formative stage in Marx's career, from Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right of 1843 to The German Ideology of 1845, signifying his early attention to German idealist philosophy and his increasing interest in capitalism. It was in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 that Marx made his first attempt at a critique of capitalism, based on alienation from our human species-being. This essay examines the structural status of Early Marx's critique and establishes — against Allen Wood's commentary — that Early Marx not only has an ethical theory, but that this theory provides an important grounding for his critical apparatus. This ethical theory also describes the good life: the good life for human beings is to conduct activities suited to their nature.