Abstract: The body is a concept that Marx attended to from the very outset of his philosophical creation. The initial context in which Marx expounds the concept of the body is the critique of Prussian feudal autocracy. Methodologically, this critique inherits the Enlightenment pursuit of universality and the proposition of subjectivity inaugurated by German classical philosophy; it exposes the paradox inherent in the feudal autocracy’s reliance on the legitimacy narrative grounded in the body or the flesh. Marx’s philosophical discussion of the body cannot bypass the intellectual context of modern Western philosophy surrounding mind-body dualism. However, standing on the heights of the history of ideas marked by German classical philosophy and eighteenth-century French materialism, Marx undertakes a radical and systematic critique of eclectic mind-body dualism; this becomes a fundamental precondition for the emergence of dialectical materialism. Ultimately, through the critique of capital-and particularly through the theory of alienation-Marx reveals the dual universal oppression and plunder suffered by the body in modern society: namely, the disciplining of the body by the modern state politics as a universal entity, and the alienation of the body caused by capital as a universal entity. Of course, Marx’s concept of the body does not rest content with merely reflecting the symptoms of real society, nor does it remain confined to moral critique; rather, it points to the necessity whereby the proletariat, through revolutionary practice enacted by its own bodies, can liberate itself and propel historical progress.

Key words: body, life, subjectivity, extension, universality