Humanism and Naturalism in Marx’s 1844 Manuscripts

In Marx’s Ecosocialism (2018), the Japanese philosopher Kohei Saito develops a distinctive ecological reading of the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. He interprets the young Marx’s idea of the unity of humanism and naturalism as an early expression of the metabolic rift thesis – the principle that, for ecosocialists, forms the ecological core of Marx’s critique of political economy. This chapter critically examines Saito’s interpretation of the Manuscripts, drawing attention to its internal contradictions. It argues that these inconsistencies stem from Saito’s hermeneutic framework, revealing the difficulties inherent in approaching the young Marx’s writings from an ecological standpoint.