Marxist humanists do not argue that Marx's thought never developed, but criticise the dichotomy between young and mature as being too rigid, instead emphasizing the continuity in Marx's development. One piece of evidence used by Marxist humanists to highlight the importance of Marx's early works is that Marx himself in 1851 tried to have two volumes of his early writings published. David McLellan and Leszek Kołakowski both note that in the afterword to the second edition of Capital, vol. 1, published in 1871, Marx makes reference to criticisms of Hegel that he made thirty years prior. They take this to refer to the 1844 Manuscripts. Kołakowski further notes that while Marx does not use the term "alienation", the description of commodity fetishism found in the first chapter of Capital is the same as in his earlier works, as is the analogy with religion which he owes to Feuerbach.
