Marx as a radical looking for a mission
One way to contextualize Marx's life is to understand that "[he] already wanted to be a radical; he just did not know what kind of radical he [...] should be"
Young Marx and the influence of Hegel
Young Marx was heavily influenced by the work of Georg Hegel, who saw human history as the unfolding of human consciousness.
Hegel's definition of alienation and totality
For Hegel, the human condition was marked by a state of alienation where there is a separation between the subject and the object.
In Hegel's work, totality points to the unity of the subject and object, which is the ideal state and in stark contrast with the idea of alienation. One of Hegel's conclusions to the problem of alienation is "human consciousness," meant to help overcome the separation of the subject and object.
Critical theory
The philosophical school of thought sees a need to subject human consciousness to critical scrutiny (Hegel, Kant as influential critical theorists).
The Influence of Ludwig Feuerbach
Young Marx was heavily influenced by the work of Hegel as well as Ludwig Feuerbach. Feuerbach saw the importance of the naturalist method, where the theorist pays special attention to the impact of the interaction between human consciousness and nature.
The legacy of the Theory of Alienation
"There is no twentieth century social theory without the theory of alienation. By the way, it's interesting, because The Paris Manuscript, for the first time, was published only in 1931. Nevertheless, the idea was already beginning to creep in earlier. Smart people read the theory of alienation in Marx earlier; Georg Lukács, for instance. And then the Frankfurt School. There is no Adorno, there is no Horkheimer, there is no Marcuse, without the theory of alienation. And I can go even further. There is no cultural theory without the theory of alienation. There is no Bauman, there is no Kolakowski, without the theory of alienation. This is a very important idea."
Naturalism versus idealism
Naturalism is closely tied to the idea of materialism, where the material conditions of people help explain the ideas of individuals. The idea of naturalism was born out of Feuerbach's work, The Essence of Christianity, where he sees man as creating the concept of God in his own image, thus arising not from an idea but the materialistic condition of the individual.
In contrast to materialism, we have idealism which sees the world as being derived from ideas. Idealism sees the creation of the world as being derived from a transcendental being (God) prominent in theological works.
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27
Materialism for Marx