ABSTRACT
In the Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts, Karl Marx talks of man as having an essence. But in The German Ideology, he defines man by his history. On several issues, Marx was “inconsistent,” and it is this inconsistency which allows so many individuals to construct their “own” Marx. The notion of an “authentic Marx” is inherently absurd. No protean thinker can ever be given a single, unambiguous reading. According to Eugene Kamenka, the past history, present character and likely future development of Marxism show Marxism to be as complex and as much subject to historical change and tension as Christianity. The only serious way to analyze Marxist or socialist thinking may well be to give up the notion that there is a coherent doctrine called Marxism or socialism, that there is any such thing as the Marxist or socialist idea, or even the Marxist or socialist view of the world.
