Karl Marx
The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature
The treatise that I herewith submit to the public is an old piece of work and was originally intended as part of a comprehensive exposition of Epicurean, Stoic, and Sceptic philosophy. At present, however, political and philosophical arrangements of an entirely different kind prevent me from bringing such a task to completion.
Only now the time has come in which the systems of the Epicureans, Stoics and Sceptics can be understood. They are the philosophers of self-consciousness. These lines will at any rate show how little has so far been achieved towards solving the problem.
[late 1841 & early 1842]