Louis Althusser

Louis Althusser
Born
Louis Pierre Althusser

(1918-10-16)16 October 1918
Died22 October 1990(1990-10-22) (aged 72)
Paris, France
Alma mater
Notable work
SpouseHélène Rytmann (m. c. 1975; d. 1980)
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolWestern Marxism
Structural Marxism
Neo-Spinozism[1][2][3][4][5]
InstitutionsÉcole Normale Supérieure
Notable students
Main interests
Notable ideas
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Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox philosopher with unknown parameter "influenced"

Louis Pierre Althusser (UK: /ˌæltʊˈsɛər/, US: /ˌɑːltˈsɛər/;[9] French: [altysɛʁ]; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy.

Althusser was a long-time member and sometimes a strong critic of the French Communist Party (Parti communiste français, PCF). His arguments and theses were set against the threats that he saw attacking the theoretical foundations of Marxism. These included both the influence of empiricism on Marxist theory, and humanist and reformist socialist orientations which manifested as divisions in the European communist parties, as well as the problem of the cult of personality and of ideology. Althusser is commonly referred to as a structural Marxist, although his relationship to other schools of French structuralism is not a simple affiliation and he was critical of many aspects of structuralism. He later described himself as a social anarchist.[10]

Althusser's life was marked by periods of intense mental illness. In 1980, he killed his wife, the sociologist Hélène Rytmann, by strangling her. He was declared unfit to stand trial due to insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital for three years. He did little further academic work, dying in 1990.

  1. ^ Vinciguerra, Lorenzo (2009), 'Spinoza in French Philosophy Today,'. Philosophy Today 53(4): 422–437
  2. ^ Duffy, Simon B. (2014), 'French and Italian Spinozism,'. In: Rosi Braidotti (ed.), After Poststructuralism: Transitions and Transformations. (London: Routledge, 2014), pp. 148–168
  3. ^ Peden, Knox: Reason without Limits: Spinozism as Anti-Phenomenology in Twentieth-Century French Thought. (Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 2009)
  4. ^ Peden, Knox: Spinoza Contra Phenomenology: French Rationalism from Cavaillès to Deleuze. (Stanford University Press, 2014) ISBN 9780804791342
  5. ^ Diefenbach, Katja (September 2016). "Is it simple to be a Spinozist in philosophy? Althusser and Deleuze". RadicalPhilosophy.com. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  6. ^ "Introduction to Louis Althusser; Module on Ideology".
  7. ^ Horner, Robyn (2005). Jean-Luc Marion: a Theo-Logical Introduction. Burlington: Ashgate. p. 3.
  8. ^ Dunn, Hopeton S. (2014). "A Tribute to Stuart Hall". Critical Arts. 28 (4): 758. doi:10.1080/02560046.2014.929228. ISSN 1992-6049. S2CID 144415843.
  9. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011). Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
  10. ^ "The Crisis of Marxism: An interview with Louis Althusser".


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