Abstract: Engels clearly interpreted, in his Umrisse zu einer Kritik der Nationalkonomie, the relationship between capital and labor from the perspective of production process. With such a view, the mutual unity, in the process of general production, of capital, serving as means and products of labor, and labor itself was indicated, together with a division of capital and labor under the condition of private ownership. Such divisions, Young Engels found, occurred in the process of production, instead of exchange. Hence came his general idea of the critique of private ownership indeed humanistic, different from the Young Hegelian members such as Hess as in Engels’ opinion, the interpretation of the specific content of the alienated labor process, but not the elaboration of alienation characteristics, gained more weight. Though without too far advance in this specific analysis, Young Engels’ interpretation is concluded as a a weak humanistic approach if we take the abstract humanistic interpretation of Hess School a kind of strong approach. Such a view offers theoretical space enough to enable Engels to walk towards historical materialism in terms of philosophical methodology.

Key words: Engels, production process, capital, labor, alienation, humanism