The Concept of Socialism of the “Amherst School” and the Vision of Communism in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844

Abstract

The new school of Marxism that emerged in Amherst since the 1980s has developed an interpretation that follows in the footsteps of Althusser, while also overlapping with postmodern thought. The “Amherst School” places class analysis and the question of the appropriation of social surplus at the center of Marxist social theory. Accordingly, its concept of socialism defines it as a “classless society,” one in which social surplus is no longer appropriated by a privileged minority. However, the realization of this form of socialism does not imply the resolution of all social problems—nor, therefore, the elimination of alienation. Since the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts approach the problem of communism through the concepts of alienation, “human essence,” and its “reappropriation,” the Amherst School’s conception of socialism is incompatible with the Manuscripts’ vision of communism.