This book is devoted to the studies of Karl Marx's Paris Manuscripts and presents a new interpretation of early Marx, arguing that his transition to maturity can be found in these manuscripts, and specifically in Comments on James Mill, which was drafted between the First Manuscript and the Second Manuscript. In Comments on James Mill, Marx succeeds in transferring his theoretical framework from the isolated individual to the society and establishes his basic goal, i.e., to explicate the nature of humans and society from the perspective of external economic relations, marking the advent of historical materialism.
This study reopens the possibility of interpreting the Paris Manuscripts from the perspective of Hegel. According to the author, it was during the Paris Manuscripts period that Marx shifted his theoretical foundations from Feuerbach to Hegel. On the basis of Hegel's alienation concept, Marx constructs a new form of alienation theory with "alienation of intercourse" at its core. The theoretical challenge tackled by this book is to restore the authority of alienation theory, and strengthen the position of the Paris Manuscripts in the history of Marx thought, so as to rearrange the traditional landscape of research on early Marx thought.
This interpretation, proposed and published for the first time in the world, could compete with the theses of Louis Althusser and Hiromatsu Wataru, which consider Die deutsche Ideologie to be the turning point of Marx. Further, it represents a significant contribution by a Chinese scholar to the international research on Marx.
"Han aims to advance a new explanation of early Marx ? . Han's work embodies the combination of philology and philosophical theory. His argument not only draws on the achievements of philology related to the Paris Manuscripts since the 1960s, but also makes a rigorous argument from philosophical theory. ? Han advocates the research path of combining Marx's philology research with Hegel's theory research, which is of great significance for improving the traditional paradigm of early Marx research." (Fei Huang and Shuang Liang, Marx and Philosophy, marxandphilosophy.org.uk, August 5, 2022)
"This is one of those books that set a new standard in scholarly research. ? To those who are interested in a detailed take on Marx's intellectual journey in hisParis period, this book is highly recommended. One finds there extremely interesting insights into the Asian (Chinese and Japanese) debates on the young/mature Marx. This book is an example of what good scholarship should look like." (Kaan Kangal, Science & Society, Vol. 85 (4), October, 2021)
