The Ph.D. examines the intellectual pattern of the English philosopher Gerald A. Cohen together with the constitution of analytical Marxism. It deals with the possibility to reconstruct Marx’s theory on the basis of non Marxian methodological tools. First it displays the founding proposals by Cohen, who defends historical materialism with the norms of analytical philosophy. Therefore, he establishes a dialogue between two traditions who have long ignored each other. Then, it presents the reconstruction proposed by analytical Marxism, which amounts to refute the theoretical content of Marxism, especially with John Roemer’s and Jon Elster’s works. Finally it describes the move that Cohen both refuted historical materialism and gave up Marxism on the one hand, and entered the post-utilitarist debate in normative political philosophy on the other hand. We conclude that, since the interpretation proposed by Cohen and the analytical Marxists led to a failure of Marxism as a tool for understanding the social world, the plausibility of Marxism to be compatible with orthodox methodological tools is weakened, and the possibility that dialectical materialism is valid, with an unity between substance and method, is maintained.