Abstract

Marx, if we look beyond the standard misrepresentations of his work, remains a highly intriguing author, together with Engels the main figure of a major revolution in the social sciences which challenges all the established practices and conventional wisdoms of the academia. His work has hardly ever been of more relevance than in the present period of world capitalism and its unfolding worldwide crises. First and foremost we need Marx as the author of a critique of modern capitalism, the economics, the politics, the ideology and social structures of bourgeois society, which is still unsurpassed in its depth and scope. Regarding the present crisis, his analysis of the making of the world market and his analysis of the follies and fictions of capitalist high finance is more necessary than ever before for anyone eager to comprehend the turmoil we are in. Second, we still need Marx as a paragon of the indispensable critique of utopias, false hopes and political illusions, both left and right, both reformist and revolutionist. Last but not least, we need him as the masterthinker of the possible, of capitalism’s futures and its aftermaths