Published in the first third of the 20^th century, Marx’s early work presents the foundations of a philosophy that, in addition to invalidating Marxism’s pretention of directly translating Marx’s ideas into political action, furnishes theoretical elements essential to understanding the analyses that we find later in Das Capital. In this presentation I show the main elements of young Marx’s philosophy while paying close attention to, first, the impassioned critique of Hegel he undertakes and, second, the impact of this philosophy for the analysis of capitalism. I will, finally, reflect on the significance of this important work in history, as much in the history of thought as that of Western society.