LOUIS PIERRE ALTHUSSER

 

LOUIS PIERRE ALTHUSSER

 

 

Ø  L Althusser – a French Marxist Philosopher (of Jewish origin)

Ø  Born in 1918 in French Algeria

Ø  Father was a bank manager whom he saw as an authoritarian figure.

Ø  He got his name from his paternal uncle who died in World War I.

Ø  He believed that his mother wanted to marry his uncle but due to his death married his father instead.

Ø  Believed that his mother treated him as a replacement of his dead uncle which results in deep psychological problem in him.

Ø  After his father’s demise Althusser’s mother along with Althusser and his younger sister moved to Marseilles.

Ø  Althusser performed brilliantly in his school.

Ø  In 1939 he admitted to Ecole Normale.

Ø  Due to World War II his studied disrupted.

Ø  During German occupation of North and East France- Althusser was put in German concentration camp for five years.

Ø  The Nazi occupation of France made him engage with Marxism.

Ø  He got involved in French Resistance against German occupation.

Ø  Althusser joined French Communist party due to influence of his wife.

Ø  He returned to Ecole Normale Superior after second World War and worked on his Master’s thesis on the German Philosopher G.W. Hegel.

Ø  During his stay in the concentration camp, Althusser developed physical and mental disorder that stay with him until his death.

Ø  Suffered depression throughout his life. During such depression he killed his wife in 1980.

Ø  Died at the age of 72 in 1990 due to heart attack.

BOOKS

READING CAPITAL: Challenges some of the concepts of Marxist philosophy and theory. Example Marxist notion of history as being teleological – moving in one direction towards goal (unilinear change) was questioned.

FOR MARX: Written in 1965  in French. Addresses the political debate of the period when people had begun to see the distortions of Marxism by Stalinist Communist party.

LENIN AND PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER ESSAYS: Published in 1971, known for the essay “IDEOLOGY AND IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS”.  

CONTEXT:

Althusser was a MARXIST but unlike most left thinkers who focused on Marx’s early works (Young Marx) he moved on to the later Marx (Old Marx), who was more of a ‘scientific theorist’ and had moved away from his early humanism (influence of Feuerbach and Hegel)

For him there was a radical epistemological break in Marx from 1845 onwards.

Background of anti humanism: The Twentieth Party Congress of Soviet Union started the process of de-Stalinization and was moving towards humanistic Marxism in 1956.

The Marxist were looking for more humane alternatives to counter the Stalinism of the Soviet and also Maoist brand of Marxism that was emerging in China.

Many leader of Communist Party of France were involved in the opening of dialogue among various groups.

Althusser did not want to align himself with them. He labeled himself as an “anti-humanist”.

He saw Marxism as a science of society. He felt that Marxist had not paid attention to Marx’s scientific approach to an understanding of history (historical materialism) in which he advocated a radical view of social change.

ALTHUSSER AND STRUCTURALIST MARXISM

Structuralists do not see individual experiences as being determined outside the forces of the structures of society. Althusser too believed in structures affecting individuals.

He wanted to show how individual acts influenced by the dominant ideology of the state.

Individual acts were not carried out as the result of free will or agency but were always and already dependent upon and part of larger social structures and influences.

Althusser advocated a non teleological view of history. He did not believe in unilinear notion of history that progressively develops towards an end or goal. 

At any point of time the social formation of society is influenced by the ideological and repressive state apparatuses which emerge from the dominant mode of production. These social formations change depending on the mode of production and in  the interest of those in power.

 RELATIVE AUTONOMY OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURE

Althusser challenges some of the assumptions of Marxism. He moves beyond Marxism and argues that the structures of the society were not related to the economic base alone.

According to him rather than understanding social structures from bottom upwards through economic determination alone that affected the political, social and religious structures at the superstructural level, he spoke to how ideology had a role to play in social formation. He used the idea of INTERLOCKING. For him the superstructure had relative autonomy. The desires, decisions and preferences an individual makes were the influences of social practices which in turn were related to the social formation of a period that moulded person in its own image.  

OTHER INFLUENCES ON ALTHUSSER

Apart from the structuralists Sigmund Freud, Lacan and Hegel also influenced Althusser in different ways. Like Marx Althusser was influenced in his theory of ideology by Freud and Lacan. Capitalism he argues gives the impression that we  are free individuals who make our own choices but according to him our preferences, choices, desires are a product of social practices in society that we have internalized. Society wants us to mould us in its own image.

Society imposes a role on the individual as a subject.

ALTHUSSER’S ESSAY, ‘IDEOLOGY AND IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS

Althusser’s essay, IDEOLOGY AND IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS: NOTES TOWARD AN INVESTIGATION basically speaks a distinct concept of social formation which relates to the dialectics of the economic base and the political and the ideological superstructures. These different levels have a capacity to influence one another. Althusser speaks of the relative autonomy of the political and ideological levels. These levels are relatively independent but in the ultimate analysis they are determined by the economic base. 

PRODUCTION AND RELATION OF REPRODUCTION

For Althusser like Marx every social formation arises from a dominant mode of production. Karl Marx in volume 2 of Das Capital had stated that no production is possible without it reproducing the material conditions of its own production. He states that in order to exist every social formation must reproduce the condition of its production at the same time as it produces. But in order to be able to produce one has to reproduce

1                    the productive forces and

2                    the existing relation of production

Althusser distinguishes between reproduction of the means of production and the reproduction of the productive forces.

Reproduction of productive forces is linked to the reproduction of labor forces. As Marx said to reproduce itself material conditions like food, clothing and shelter should be provided to the labor. But reproducing labor power is not enough. Althusser stated that diversified skilled labor that is competent for a complex system of the process of production is required. He argued that during slavery and serfdom the skill is acquired on the spot through trial and error experience. Under capitalism it is achieved more and more outside production:

• by the capitalist education system
• by other instances and institutions (Church and other apparatus like Army )

The education system according to Althusser not only teaches children knowledge in different disciplines but also teaches them “proper” rules of the society which means rules of respect for the socio-technical division of labor and ultimately the rules of the order established by class domination.

The reproduction of labor power includes not only reproduction of its skill but also a “submission to the rules of established order”. This allows for the ruling ideology to manipulate and exploit workers.

IDEOLOGY, STATE APPARATUS AND REPRESSIVE STATE APPARATUS

Marxist theory of state always claimed that the State is the Repressive State Apparatus

State power and State Apparatus must be distinguished

The objective of the class struggle concerns State power and in consequence the use of the State apparatus by the classes holding State power as a function of their class objectives

The proletariat must seize State power in order to destroy the existing bourgeois State apparatus and in a first phase replace it with a quite different proletarian State apparatus, then in later phases set in motion a radical process that of the destruction of the State (Stateless society).

Althusser states that in Marxist theory the State apparatus constitutes the government, the administration, the army, the police, the courts, the prisons etc.

According to Althusser apart from taking into account state power and state apparatus another reality has to be taken into account .This reality he calls Ideological State apparatuses.  

He gives some example of ISA

1                    The religious ISA (Churches and other such bodies/ institutions).

2                    The educational ISA (refers to public and private schools)

3                    The family ISA

4                    The trade union ISA

5                    The communication ISA (media, press, television etc.)

6                    The cultural ISA (literature, arts, sports)

Althusser distinguishes between ISA and RSA

1                    If there is one RSA that is STATE there is a plurality of ISA

2                    The RSA belongs to public domain but the ISA to the private (family, school, churches etc.)

3                    The RSA functions by violence with the use of courts, law at initial stage but if things are not contained to incarceration the police and eventually army is used.

Althusser explained that although there is a plurality of ISAs, there is one thing that binds them together despite their contradiction and that is the ideology of the ruling class. He argued that since the state power is held by the ruling class both ISA and RSA are at their disposal.