As you may recall, in a foreshadowing of Pierre Hadot, the later Michel Foucault, and Peter Sloterdijk, the young Marx takes up Hellenistic philosophy for its significance as an indication of the “subjective form” (rather than “metaphysical content”) of the philosophical enterprise. For Marx, as for the later thinkers, this period of philosophy becomes important, above all, for its indications of—one might say—spiritual exercises.