Louis Althusser

Biography

Louis Althusser was born in 1918 in Birmandreis, Algeria, then a French colony, into a middle-class family. He studied at the Lycee Carnot in Paris and later at the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS), the most prestigious institution of higher education in France. He was captured by the German army during the Second World War and spent five years in a prisoner-of-war camp, where he developed his interest in Marxism and philosophy.

After the war, Althusser returned to the ENS, where he became a professor of philosophy and remained for the rest of his career. He was a member of the French Communist Party, and his work was an attempt to develop a rigorous, scientific Marxism that could compete with the humanist and existentialist interpretations of Marx that were dominant in French intellectual life. His major works include For Marx (1965), Reading Capital (1965, with Etienne Balibar), and Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1971), which contains his most famous essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses." Althusser's life was marked by periods of severe mental illness, and in 1980, he killed his wife during a psychotic episode. He was declared unfit to stand trial and spent the last decade of his life in psychiatric hospitals. He died in 1990 at the age of 72.

Historical Background

Althusser wrote during a period of profound intellectual and political ferment in France. The dominance of the French Communist Party, the impact of the Algerian War of Independence, and the rise of the student movement in the 1960s created a context in which the question of Marxism was central to intellectual life. The dominant interpretation of Marx in France was the humanist Marxism of Jean-Paul Sartre and the existentialists, who emphasized the young Marx's writings on alienation and the human subject.

The intellectual context of Althusser's work was the tradition of structuralism, which was the dominant intellectual movement in France in the 1960s. Structuralism, in the work of Claude Levi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, and Jacques Lacan, emphasized the priority of structures over subjects, and the analysis of the underlying systems that shape human experience. Althusser's project was to develop a structuralist interpretation of Marx that could provide a rigorous, scientific foundation for Marxist theory.

Core Ideas

Ideological State Apparatuses

Althusser's concept of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs), developed in his essay "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," is one of his most influential contributions to social theory. He distinguished between the Repressive State Apparatus (the government, the police, the courts, the army), which operates through violence, and the Ideological State Apparatuses (the education system, the church, the media, the family, the political system), which operate through ideology.

The ISAs, Althusser argued, are the primary means by which the ruling class maintains its power in advanced capitalist societies. The Repressive State Apparatus secures the conditions for the operation of the ISAs, but it is the ISAs that do the real work of reproducing the relations of production. The education system, for example, reproduces the class structure by training children to accept their place in the social hierarchy. The media reproduces the dominant ideology by presenting the interests of the ruling class as the universal interests of society.

Interpellation

Althusser's concept of interpellation is his theory of how ideology constitutes individuals as subjects. Interpellation is the process by which ideology "hails" or "calls out to" individuals, and in responding to this hailing, individuals become subjects. The classic example is the police officer who calls out, "Hey, you there!" When the individual turns around, he or she becomes a subject, recognizing that the call was addressed to them.

Interpellation, Althusser argued, is the fundamental mechanism of ideology. Ideology does not simply represent the world; it constitutes the subject who experiences the world. The subject is not a pre-existing, autonomous individual who then encounters ideology but is created by ideology. We are always already subjects, always already interpellated by the ideology of our society. This concept of interpellation has been enormously influential in cultural studies, film theory, and the analysis of media and popular culture.

Overdetermination

Althusser's concept of overdetermination, which he borrowed from Freud, is his theory of the complex, multiple determination of social phenomena. Against the Marxist orthodoxy that the economy is the sole determining factor in the last instance, Althusser argued that social phenomena are determined by a complex combination of multiple factors. The economy is determinant "in the last instance," but the last instance never comes, because the economy is always overdetermined by the political, ideological, and theoretical instances.

Overdetermination is the basis of Althusser's critique of economic determinism and his defense of the relative autonomy of the political and ideological levels of society. The social formation is a complex structure of different levels or instances, each with its own logic and its own tempo of development. The economic level is dominant in the last instance, but the dominant level in any particular social formation may be the political or the ideological level. This concept of overdetermination allows Althusser to analyze the complexity of social causality without reducing it to a single factor.

Structural Marxism and the Critique of Humanism

Althusser's structural Marxism was a radical reinterpretation of the Marxist tradition. He argued that the mature Marx, the Marx of Capital, had developed a scientific theory of history that was fundamentally different from the humanist and historicist interpretations that dominated Marxist thought. The young Marx, the author of the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, was still caught in the humanist ideology of the Enlightenment, but the mature Marx had made a "epistemological break" with his earlier humanism and had developed a genuinely scientific theory of history.

The critique of humanism was central to Althusser's project. He argued that the concept of the human subject, which was the foundation of humanist Marxism, was a bourgeois ideology. Marxism, Althusser argued, is a "theoretical anti-humanism" that rejects the idea of the autonomous human subject and analyzes history as a "process without a subject." The subjects of history are not individuals but social structures and class relations. This anti-humanist interpretation of Marx was deeply controversial, and it provoked a fierce debate within the Marxist tradition.

The Epistemological Break

Althusser's concept of the epistemological break, which he borrowed from the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, is his theory of the discontinuity between the young Marx and the mature Marx. The epistemological break, which occurred around 1845, marked the transition from the humanist, ideological Marx to the scientific Marx. The young Marx, the author of the 1844 Manuscripts, was still working within the framework of German idealist philosophy, with its concepts of alienation, the human essence, and the subject of history. The mature Marx, the author of Capital, had broken with this framework and had developed a new science of history.

The concept of the epistemological break allowed Althusser to defend the scientific status of Marxism against the humanist interpretations that were dominant in the 1950s and 1960s. Marxism, Althusser argued, is not a humanist philosophy but a science of history, comparable to the natural sciences in its rigor and its claim to objective knowledge. This defense of the scientific status of Marxism was controversial, but it was also influential, and it shaped the development of Marxist theory in the late twentieth century.

Major Works

Althusser's major works include For Marx (1965), a collection of essays that developed his structuralist interpretation of Marxism; Reading Capital (1965, with Etienne Balibar), a systematic reading of Marx's Capital; and Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1971), which contains his most famous essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses." His posthumously published works include The Future Lasts a Long Time (1992), his autobiography, and Machiavelli and Us (1999), a study of the relationship between politics and philosophy.

Philosophical Influence

Althusser's influence on contemporary critical theory, cultural studies, and political philosophy has been immense. His concept of Ideological State Apparatuses has shaped the analysis of the role of education, media, and culture in the reproduction of capitalist society. His concept of interpellation has become a central reference point in film theory, media studies, and the analysis of popular culture. His critique of humanism and economic determinism transformed Marxist theory and opened up new possibilities for the analysis of the relationship between the economic, the political, and the ideological levels of society.

Althusser's influence extends beyond Marxist theory to the broader tradition of critical theory and cultural studies. The Stanford Encyclopedia notes that Althusser's work is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the development of Marxist theory in the twentieth century and the relationship between ideology, power, and the constitution of the subject.

Related Concepts

Althusser's philosophy connects to several major themes in modern thought. His concept of Ideological State Apparatuses connects to the tradition of the theory of the state, from Gramsci to the contemporary theory of hegemony and ideology. His concept of interpellation connects to the tradition of the theory of the subject, from Lacan to the contemporary theory of subjectivity and identity. His concept of overdetermination connects to the tradition of structural analysis, from Freud to the contemporary theory of complex causality. His structural Marxism connects to the tradition of anti-humanist philosophy, from Spinoza to the contemporary theory of the death of the subject. And his critique of empiricism connects to the tradition of the philosophy of science, from Bachelard to the contemporary theory of scientific practice.

Sources

1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Louis Althusser." A comprehensive scholarly reference covering Althusser's life, his philosophical contributions, and his influence on Marxist theory and critical thought.
2. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Louis Althusser." An accessible overview of Althusser's philosophical contributions and historical significance.