His thought is based on the Ancient Greek and idealistic tradition philosophy under the influence of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx.

Born in Valenza, Preve studied philosophy, political science and ancient and modern Greek in Turin, Paris and Athens.

After the dissolving of the PCI following the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, Preve undertook a critical review of his own positions held in the precedent decades.

In the 1990s, Preve returned to Althusser and criticized economism and orthodox Marxism based on a teleological philosophy of history inspired by Hegel.

As did Althusser in his latter work on "random materialism" (matérialisme aléatoire), Preve insisted on the place of contingency in history and considers the class contrast between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat to be a historical passing form specific to a certain period of the capitalist mode of production.