Le radici filosofiche del comunismo

The article analyses the theme of the philosophical roots of communism, adopting a clear hermeneutic perspective, based on two theses. First thesis: to speak of the philosophical roots of communism means to consider this historical-political phenomenon as a product of Marxian philosophical thought; second thesis: to speak of the philosophical roots of communism also means to take a precise position within the debate (a debate that is not very topical today but extremely significant throughout most of the 20th century) on the identity of Marxism itself. In fact, this debate was marked by the confrontation between a position that denied value to the philosophical part of Marx's work, valuing only its political and economic dimension, and a position that proposed an interpretation of the philosophical part of Marx's work in terms of its trans-valuation in political science. While the former argued that Marx the philosopher should be abandoned because his philosophy deformed and weakened political Marx, for the latter there was nothing to abandon, since the philosophical discourse represented only a conscious polemic against the various philosophical and ethical conceptions chosen as a critical target, and this polemic served Marx to achieve a sober realistic interpretation of the historical, social and economic order. Despite the differences, both interpretative paths ended up converging on the denial of Marxism as true philosophy. It is clear, then, that to speak of the 'philosophical roots' of communism is to take a stand against both the aforementioned hermeneutics, and to choose an interpretative perspective for which, on the one hand, the philosophical moment of Marxism is essential to the emergence of Marxism itself and, on the other hand, communism is presented as its main political and economic consequence. In short, to argue that communism has philosophical roots is to affirm a 'transpolitical' conception of contemporary history, i.e. a conception for which contemporary history can only be understood if proper space is given to the role played by ethical-philosophical thought. In this context, the story of Marxism is central and paradigmatic.