Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays

by Louis Althusser

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0853452016
• ISBN13: 9780853452010
• Release Date: August 1972
• Publisher: Monthly Review Press
• Length: 253 Pages

Customer Reviews

depends on what your looking for

the essays are as they were written - that being said - philosophy isn't an easy read - so prepared, there are no interpretations or anyone to hold your hand. what you see is what you get. if you want to read essays from historically relevant philosophers, buy the book. if your not interested in marxist theory or any arguments sprung from it, don't buy this book. if your patient and have a sense of humor and are interested in this stuff, buy this book. if your a college student and hate this stuff, buy something else. like a bag of doritos.

Brilliant

Althusser is often undervalued in the French academy these days, but this contemporary disdain for the late Marxist is unwarranted, for he will prove to be one of the significant political minds of the latter half of the 20th century. This collection of essays addresses a number of issues inherent in the philosophical system and development of Marxist thought. Althusser's anti-humanist reading of Marx is useful in his repudiation of easy humanist exhortations about the essence of man, or the early Marx's 'species being.' Lenin and Philosophy attempts to reassert the significance of Lenin as a thinker of historical materialism. Althusser's structuralist account of the development of historical materialism seeks to demarcate philosophy as praxis-philosophy draws the lines which are to deflect false ideas. The essay on the Ideological State Apparatus is where Althusser develops his famous notion of 'interpellation,' or 'hailing'. The application of psychoanalytic discourse resolves a number of problems regarding Marx's work on 'false consciousness.' The essays on art (particularly Cremonini), are also provocative, though immensely difficult.

One of the best!

This is an excellent text if you are interested in having your reality turned on its head. I have used this reference in almost every paper I have written since beginning my path down the winding road of critical theory. I recommend it to anyone who thinks about why we think the way we do, anyone interested in hegemony, and anyone who thinks something is wrong with our world but s/he feels s/he just can't put a finger on what it is. This is a foundational text for anyone studying literary theory or philosophy. It contains the famous I.S.A. essay, a must read for anyone who functions metacognitively!