Abstract

The essay demonstrates how the conception of nature formulated by Marx before the writing of "The Capital" derives from his extreme anthropocentric perspective developed through the notions of "Gemeinwesen and Homo faber" - presented respectively in the "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts" of 1844 and in the "Deutsche Ideologie". The main argument is that Marx was not able to theorise the autonomy and the nonderivative character of nature with respect to the human until he started to work on "The Capital" and shifted from the superficial notion of "Arbeit" to the scientific concept of "Arbeitskraft".