Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Themes from the Young Hegelians -- 2. Feuerbach's and Marx's Complaint against Philosophy -- 3. The Interest of These Texts -- 4. Chapter by Chapter -- 1. Feuerbach's Critique of Christianity -- 1. The Content of the Critique of Christianity -- 2. The Method of the Critique of Christianity -- 3. Comparisons -- 4. The Natural Scientist of the Mind -- 2. Feuerbach's Critique of Philosophy -- 1. The Status of Philosophy -- 2. The Method of the Critique of Philosophy -- 3. The Goal of the Critique of Philosophy -- 4. Problems -- 5. Antecedents -- 6. Final Comment -- 3. Bruno Bauer -- 1. Self-Consciousness -- 2. State and Civil Society -- 3. The Critique of Religion -- 4. Taking the Critic's Standpoint -- 5. Assessment -- 4. The 1844 Marx I: Self-Realization -- 1. Species Being: Products -- 2. Species Being: Enjoyments -- 3. The Human Relation to Objects -- 4. Species Being: Immortality -- 5. The Human Self-Realization Activity -- 5. The 1844 Marx II: The Structure of Community -- 1. Completing One Another -- 2. Mediation with the Species -- 3. Digression on Community -- 6. The 1844 Marx III: The Problem of Justification -- 1. The Workers' Ignorance of Their True Nature -- 2. The Problem of Justification -- 3. The Problem of Communists' Ends and Beliefs -- 4. Marx's 1844 Critique of Philosophy -- 5. The Problem of the Present -- 7. The Theses on Feuerbach -- 1. Fundamental Relations/Orientations -- 2. Thesis Eleven -- 3. Labor -- 4. The Practical-Idealist Reading -- 5. The Problem of the First Step -- 6. Thesis Six -- 8. The German Ideology I: More Antiphilosophy -- 1. Some General Comments -- 2. The Attack on the Young Hegelians -- 3. Empirical Verification -- 4. Antiphilosophy I -- 5. Antiphilosophy II -- 6. Transformation. 9. The German Ideology II: The Picture of the Good Life and the Change from 1844 -- 1. Division of Labor -- 2. Community -- 3. Self-Activity -- 4. The Change from 1844 -- 10. The German Ideology III: The Critique of Morality (and a Return to Philosophy) -- 1. What Is the Problem with Morality? -- 2. The Sociological Thesis -- 3. The Strong Sociological Thesis and the Structural Thesis -- 4. Morality and Moral Philosophy under Communism -- 5. Can The German Ideology Justify a Condemnation of Capitalism? -- 6. Returning to Philosophy -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index.
Brudney traces post-Hegelian thought from Feuerbach through Bauer to Marx's work of 1844 and his Theses on Feuerbach, and ends with an examination of The German Ideology. He shows how Marx attempted to reveal humanity's nature and a notion of the good life, while polemicizing against any concern with metaphysics and epistemology.