Marx’s encounter with Spinoza

A critical humanism for the 21st century

Abstract

The title of this essay evokes a proposal made by influential Argentine sociologist and intellectual Horacio González in his posthumous book Humanismo, impugnación y resistencia. In it, González pleads for a collective movement of thought that brings together different traditions and styles of thinking in order to ground a renewed form of anti-capitalism. González revitalizes the concept of “humanism” with a “critical” inflection so as to break away from the more traditional ideas which the concept evokes. What is at stake here is a rethinking of the most vital debates between humanism and anti-humanism in the 20th century. This entails revisiting age-old issues and concepts, not only because they influenced generations of thinkers, but also because the problems that gave rise to them do not perish—much unlike the millions of people who die amid the various crises (sanitary, economic, social, political, ecological) produced by the misanthropic vitality of capitalism.