Marxism and the Paradox of Contemporary Political Thought

and the Paradox of Contemporary Political Thought Stanley Rothman W ITH all the volumes that have been written about Marx and Marxism in recent years, there has been little or no attempt, in the English-speaking world at least, to relate his thinking to the general development of modem European philosophic speculation.' Fundamentally this is because Marx has received short shrift as a philosopher. Both English and American commentators have been almost entirely concerned with his role as "social scientist" and polemicist, and hence have concentrated their attention upon his historical materialism and his critique of capitalist society. The preoccupation with this aspect of Marx's thinking to the