The now popular term 'Eurocommunism', used to characterize what many believe to be certain directions, tendencies and impulses within a few Western European Communist Parties, has not been in circulation for very long but, on the other hand, nor have these exhibitions of independence from the domination of Moscow. Given its brief existence as well as the nature of its primary concerns up to now we should not be overly surprised to find little rigorous philosophical underpinning of the Eurocommunist posi tion, regardless of how it is defined. Perhaps at least in this matter Hegel's theme of the Owl of Minerva taking flight only at dusk holds a grain of truth. Yet it would be equally presumptuous and rash if we were hastily to dismiss the idea of an investigation into the intellectual roots of such an important, or potentially important, movement claiming that it lacks such roots. In this brief paper we will undertake an excavation and examina tion of these foundations with an eye to their structural outline.