Key figuresKarl Marx (see p. 373) T

Key figures
Karl Marx (see p. 373) The breadth and complexity of Marx’s own writings
has made it difficult to establish the ‘Marxism of Marx’. A distinction is
sometimes drawn between the ‘young Marx’ and the ‘mature Marx’. Marx’s
early writings portray him to be a humanist socialist, concerned about
alienation, the commodification and depersonalisation of labour under
capitalism, and interested in human self-realisation under communism.
However, in his later writings, Marx undertook a highly detailed examination
of the economic conditions of capitalism, leading some to describe him as an
economic determinist and the progenitor of later orthodox Marxism.