Lenin and Philosophy

Lenin and Philosophy PDF

Author: Louis Althusser

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2017-11-10

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 178873176X

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No figure among the western Marxist theoreticians has loomed larger in the postwar period than Louis Althusser. A rebel against the Catholic tradition in which he was raised, Althusser studied philosophy and later joined both the faculty of the Ecole normal superieure and the French Communist Party in 1948. Viewed as a structuralist Marxist, Althusser was as much admired for his independence of intellect as he was for his rigorous defense of Marx. The latter was best illustrated in For Marx (1965), and Reading Capital (1968). These works, along with Lenin and Philosophy (1971) had an enormous influence on the New Left of the 1960s and continues to influence modern Marxist scholarship. This classic work, which to date has sold more than 30,000 copies, covers the range of Louis Althusser's interests and contributions in philosophy, economics, psychology, aesthetics, and political science. Marx, in Althusser's view, was subject in his earlier writings to the ruling ideology of his day. Thus for Althusser, the interpretation of Marx involves a repudiation of all efforts to draw from Marx's early writings a view of Marx as a humanist and historicist. Lenin and Philosophy also contains Althusser's essay on Lenin's study of Hegel; a major essay on the state, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses, Freud and Lacan: A letter on Art in Reply to Andr Daspre, and Cremonini, Painter of the Abstract. The book opens with a 1968 interview in which Althusser discusses his personal, political, and intellectual history.

Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays

Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays PDF

Author: Louis Althusser

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2001-11-13

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1583673725

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No figure among the western Marxist theoreticians has loomed larger in the postwar period than Louis Althusser. A rebel against the Catholic tradition in which he was raised, Althusser studied philosophy and later joined both the faculty of the Ecole normal superieure and the French Communist Party in 1948. Viewed as a "structuralist Marxist," Althusser was as much admired for his independence of intellect as he was for his rigorous defense of Marx. The latter was best illustrated in For Marx (1965), and Reading Capital (1968). These works, along with Lenin and Philosophy (1971) had an enormous influence on the New Left of the 1960s and continues to influence modern Marxist scholarship. This classic work, which to date has sold more than 30,000 copies, covers the range of Louis Althusser's interests and contributions in philosophy, economics, psychology, aesthetics, and political science. Marx, in Althusser's view, was subject in his earlier writings to the ruling ideology of his day. Thus for Althusser, the interpretation of Marx involves a repudiation of all efforts to draw from Marx's early writings a view of Marx as a "humanist" and "historicist." Lenin and Philosophy also contains Althusser's essay on Lenin's study of Hegel; a major essay on the state, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," "Freud and Lacan: A letter on Art in Reply to André Daspre," and "Cremonini, Painter of the Abstract." The book opens with a 1968 interview in which Althusser discusses his personal, political, and intellectual history.

On Ideology

On Ideology PDF

Author: Louis Althusser

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2020-04-07

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 1788739256

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This major voice in French philosophy presents a classic study of how particular political and cultural ideas come to dominate society. Spanning the years 1964 to 1973, On Ideology contains the seminal text, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus” (1970), which revolutionized the concept of subject formation. In “Reply to John Lewis” (1972–73), Althusser addressed the criticisms of the English Marxist toward On Marx and Reading Capital. Also included are “Freud and Lacan” (1964) and “A Letter on Art in Reply to André Daspre” (1966).

Althusser and His Contemporaries

Althusser and His Contemporaries PDF

Author: Warren Montag

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2013-05-01

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0822399040

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Althusser and His Contemporaries alters and expands understanding of Louis Althusser and French philosophy of the 1960s and 1970s. Thousands of pages of previously unpublished work from different periods of Althusser's career have been made available in French since his death in 1990. Based on meticulous study of the philosopher's posthumous publications, as well as his unpublished manuscripts, lecture notes, letters, and marginalia, Warren Montag provides a thoroughgoing reevaluation of Althusser's philosophical project. Montag shows that the theorist was intensely engaged with the work of his contemporaries, particularly Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, and Lacan. Examining Althusser's philosophy as a series of encounters with his peers' thought, Montag contends that Althusser's major philosophical confrontations revolved around three themes: structure, subject, and beginnings and endings. Reading Althusser reading his contemporaries, Montag sheds new light on structuralism, poststructuralism, and the extraordinary moment of French thought in the 1960s and 1970s.

Writings on Psychoanalysis

Writings on Psychoanalysis PDF

Author: Louis Althusser

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9780231101691

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This collection of some of Louis Althusser's major essays on psychoanalytic thought documents his relationship with Jacques Lacan and presents aspects of his personal and intellectual life

Louis Althusser

Louis Althusser PDF

Author: Luke Ferretter

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-05-07

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 113433785X

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Best known for his theories of ideology and its impact on politics and culture, Louis Althusser revolutionized Marxist theory. His writing changed the face of literary and cultural studies, and continues to influence political modes of criticism such as feminism, postcolonialism and queer theory. Beginning with an introduction to the context of Marxist theory, this book goes on to explain: * how Althusser interpreted and developed Marx’s work * the political implications of reading * ideology and its significance for culture and criticism * Althusser’s aesthetic criticism of literature, theatre and art. Placing Althusser’s key ideas in the context of earlier Marxist thought, as well as tracing their development and impact, Luke Ferretter presents a wide-ranging yet accessible guide, ideal for those new to the work of this influential critical thinker.

On The Reproduction Of Capitalism

On The Reproduction Of Capitalism PDF

Author: Louis Althusser

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2014-02-04

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1781681651

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Louis Althusser’s renowned short text ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’ radically transformed the concept of the subject, the understanding of the state and even the very frameworks of cultural, political and literary theory. The text has influenced thinkers such as Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek. The piece is, in fact, an extract from a much longer book, On the Reproduction of Capitalism, until now unavailable in English. Its publication makes possible a reappraisal of seminal Althusserian texts already available in English, their place in Althusser’s oeuvre and the relevance of his ideas for contemporary theory. On the Reproduction of Capitalism develops Althusser’s conception of historical materialism, outlining the conditions of reproduction in capitalist society and the revolutionary struggle for its overthrow. Written in the afterglow of May 1968, the text addresses a question that continues to haunt us today: in a society that proclaims its attachment to the ideals of liberty and equality, why do we witness the ever-renewed reproduction of relations of domination? Both a conceptually innovative text and a key theoretical tool for activists, On the Reproduction of Capitalism is an essential addition to the corpus of the twentieth-century Left.

Machiavelli and Us

Machiavelli and Us PDF

Author: François Matheron

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2020-05-05

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 1789600073

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"We do not publish our own drafts, that is, our own mistakes, but we do sometimes publish other people's," Louis Althusser once observed of Marx's early writings. Among his own posthumously released drafts, one, at least, is incontestably neither mistake nor out-take: the text of his lecture course on Machiavelli, originally delivered at the cole Normale Suprieure in 1972, intermittently revised up to the mid-1980s, and carefully prepared for publication after his death in 1990. Though only appearing as an occasional reference in the Marxist philosopher's oeuvre, Machiavelli was an unseen constant presence. For together with Spinoza and Marx, Machiavelli was a veritable Althusserian passion. Machiavelli and Us reveals why, and will be welcomed for the light it sheds on the richly complex thought of its author.

The Spectre Of Hegel

The Spectre Of Hegel PDF

Author: Louis Althusser

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2014-01-07

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1781682054

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Louis Althusser is remembered today as the scourge of humanist Marxism, but that was his later incarnation, an identity formed by years grappling with the intellectual inheritance of Hegel and Catholicism. The Spectre of Hegel collects the writings of the young Althusser, before his final epistemological break with the philosopher’s work in 1953. Including his famed essay ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’, The Spectre of Hegel gives a unique insight into Althusser’s engagement with a philosophy he would later renounce.