Abstract

This essay takes as its starting point the idea that Marx (as a philosopher, politician and economist) and his exceptional influence on the modern world still have to be properly appreciated. The extraordinary practical effectiveness of the Marxian thought depended, probably, on the almost perfect, and surely unique chemistry it establishes between an outstanding capacity to interpret and "scientifically" analyze the actual conflicts crosscutting society, and a redemptive message of equal strength, capable of structuring the identities of individual and social groups and of inscribing them in a finalistic, salvationist, framework. Now that this faith has declined, Marx's thought requires to be studied in a critical and analytical way, in order to highlight both its remarkable intuitions and its unsolved contradictions.