The Discovery of Economics

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the first encounter of Marx with political economy, whose main outcomes are the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and the comments to the political economy of James Mill. In these writings, Marx develops the fundamental concept of alienated labor and investigates the real meaning of the Hegelian dialectic, which represents a way of understanding human history as a dialectical process of alienation and re-appropriation. The chapter also analyzes The Holy Family, written together with Friedrich Engels, in which Marx outlines his sharp critique of the Hegelian Left.