This paper revisits some of Marx’s central philosophical ideas with the attempt to understand the thinker’s real place in the history of the Western philosophical tradition. It does not only show that the philosophical dimension is central to Marx’s economic and political works, and therefore his contributions to philosophy merit special investigation, but it also argues that Marx is a descendant of classic German philosophy, and thus his views should be assessed in the context of the development of the philosophical ideas that emerged within that tradition.