“The translation of Gattungswesen as species-being, while not entirely incorrect, tends to ground the term in a biological or anthropological meaning. Although the term, especially as inherited from Feuerbach does entail something of a biological reference, the term itself does not necessarily imply such a reference. Terminologically, the French translation of Gattungswesen as la vie générique (generic life) is perhaps more accurate (Marx, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, 112/369).”
Read, Jason, The Micropolitics of Capital: Marx and the Prehistory of the Present, New York: SUNY Press, 2003. p180