The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.

This line comes from Marx’s 1857–58 manuscripts later published as the Grundrisse, written during his intensive study of political economy in London amid the economic crisis of 1857. In the opening methodological section (“Introduction”), Marx criticizes the idea that society can be explained by starting from an isolated, self-sufficient individual (a common assumption in classical political economy and social-contract theory). Against this “Robinsonade,” he insists that human individuality is historically produced through social relations and material conditions, and that even seemingly private capacities (labor, language, needs) presuppose a social world.

Marx adapts Aristotle’s notion of the human as a “political animal” to argue that sociality is not an optional add-on to an already complete individual. Humans do not merely cluster like herd animals; they become distinct persons—developing needs, skills, self-consciousness, and aims—through participation in historically specific forms of cooperation, conflict, and production. The claim also undercuts theories that treat markets, rights, or the state as arising from agreements among pre-social individuals. For Marx, individuality and freedom are real, but they are mediated by social relations; changing those relations changes what kinds of individuals can exist.