Louis Pierre Althusser: A French Marxist Philosopher
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Louis Pierre Althusser, a prominent French Marxist philosopher of the twentieth century, is renowned for introducing the concept of structuralist Marxism. Despite his membership in the French Communist Party, Althusser remained critical of the party at times. His ideas greatly influenced a generation of philosophers, including Derrida, Pierre Bourdieu, and Michel Foucault. Challenging Hegelian Interpretations of Marxism In his major works "For Marx" (1965) and "Reading Capital" (1965), Althusser opposed the predominant Hegelian interpretations of Marxism. He emphasized the epistemological break in Marx's thinking, which focused on developing a new science to examine historical processes rather than historical subjects. Althusser's concept of historical change prioritized the relationship between forces and relations of production over consciousness. This emphasis on objective factors aimed to rescue Marxism from existential ideas propagated by figures like Jea…