Evaluate Althusser’s contribution to political sociology.
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HEY MATE
HEY MATE The work of Louis Althusser has proven controversial in the International Socialist tradition, as well as throughout Marxist thought worldwide. In recent years, a revival of interest in his work has taken place. In the past decade, Althusser’s late work Philosophy of the Encounter was translated and published, as well as significant discussions of his work. These include the second edition of Gregory Elliott’s standard study, important books by Warren Montag and Mikko Lahtinen, the lengthy collection titled Encountering Althusser, and the ongoing publications of the journal Décalages.1 The recent translation of the entirety of the manuscript On the Reproduction of Capitalism, from which the famous essay “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” was extracted, is an occasion to review some of Althusser’s ideas in the hopes of determining whether his work has made legitimate contributions to the struggle for socialism from below.
HEY MATE The work of Louis Althusser has proven controversial in the International Socialist tradition, as well as throughout Marxist thought worldwide. In recent years, a revival of interest in his work has taken place. In the past decade, Althusser’s late work Philosophy of the Encounter was translated and published, as well as significant discussions of his work. These include the second edition of Gregory Elliott’s standard study, important books by Warren Montag and Mikko Lahtinen, the lengthy collection titled Encountering Althusser, and the ongoing publications of the journal Décalages.1 The recent translation of the entirety of the manuscript On the Reproduction of Capitalism, from which the famous essay “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” was extracted, is an occasion to review some of Althusser’s ideas in the hopes of determining whether his work has made legitimate contributions to the struggle for socialism from below.On the Reproduction of Capitalism is a relatively late work of Althusser’s, inspired by the mass uprising of workers and students in 1968.2 Committed to his membership in the French Communist Party (PCF), Althusser accepted its conservative response to the movement and refused to support the strikes or demonstrations. For this reason, many of Althusser’s students, who had previously viewed his ideas as a vital new development in revolutionary politics, bitterly rejected him. He had garnered a reputation as an oppositional, radical figure among Communists and the Left more broadly, but was unable to act beyond the dictates of the party bureaucrats.
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