Politics of the senses: Karl Marx and empirical subjectivity

This article reconsiders some underlying assumptions regarding Marx's theory of subjectivity. It contends that Marx's early resistance to Hegel would initiate a productive and multifaceted engagement with empiricism which would extend through-out his philosophical and economic authorship, the foundations of this empiricism drawn from a dynamic conception of subjectivity much closer to the tradition of Hume. Through an examination of some of Marx's major works, including a more detailed exegetical analysis of the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, this article explores Marx's empirical theory of the subject and considers the manner in which it informs his materialist conception of history, his dialectical procedure and his comprehension of the experience of the subject under capitalism.