Marx’s theology explained to children

Abstract

Marx’s doctrine can be understood as a superposition of four layers of thought. 1) An interesting, embryonary, practical materialism, secularized, modern that demands to be recovered and developed for our days, in dialogue with practical acquisitions of contemporary philosophy. 2) an, alas, schematic, dualistic, deterministic, crypto-normative, historical materialism, in all likelihood an idealistic,dogmatic philosophy of history, of which Marx’s critique of capitalism
 the decisive chapter ”“ a materialism that could be made into a better transformation of Hegel away from idealism and metaphysics. 3) A speculative humanism, of species-being, that assumes the Feuerbachian critique of Christianity as its presupposition/foundation, together with Christianity itself (feuerbachianly “translated”), and that takes, as its measure and telos the total reunification of society as the true mystical-political body of Man. This humanism, for the despair of those which see it and understand its inconsistency, v.g. Althusser, is never really abandoned by Marx and traditional Marxists, although it is further developed by Marx, especially in his critique of political economy, behind the mask of a unifying determination by the essential
- effectively social - level that underlies a level of “real appearence” where all kinds of freedom and particularity are illusions. Here we will particularly focus on point three.