Louis Althusser: Science and Ideology

Hub Zwart

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-84570-4_5

Abstract

AbstractIn terms of design and key objectives, this volume entails a triadic syllogism. Continental thinking constitutes its source material, and first of all I offer a concise exposition of the way in which Hegel, Marx, Engels, Bachelard, Lacan and Heidegger allow us to come to terms with technoscience. As indicated, notwithstanding multiple differences and interventions, I see their oeuvres as building on a common ground. I also acknowledge the second moment (the negation), however, consisting of claims (brought forward by various authors) that this corpus of literature, or parts of it, are invalid or outdated, for instance because the future belongs to neo-liberalism (as Francis Fukuyama argued), or because continental thinking is flawed by Eurocentric and androcentric biases. Rather than countering or criticising this type of criticism directly and extensively (which would result in more or less “theoretical” debates), I have adopted a more “cataphatic” course. By outlining its basic logic (its methodology) and by extrapolating it to a number of case studies, my aim is to demonstrate the viability, urgency and contemporary relevance of a continental approach (“via positiva”).

Highlights

In terms of design and key objectives, this volume entails a triadic syllogism
His work may be seen as an obstacle blocking the way, and obstacle “from within” notably his claim that the approach which is presented as a unity here, is dirempted by an epistemological rupture, between Hegel (“ideology”) and Marx (“science”), according to Althusser the early Marx still errs on the Hegelian side of the divide
5 Louis Althusser: Science and Ideology In Chap. 3 we already indicated how, according to Louis Althusser (1918–1990), Karl Marx founded a new science with a methodology and problematic of its own, so that his role in history is comparable to that of Galileo in physics and Lavoisier in chemistry

Summary

Chapter 5

Continental thinking constitutes its source material, and first of all I offer a concise exposition of the way in which Hegel, Marx, Engels, Bachelard, Lacan and Heidegger allow us to come to terms with technoscience. His work may be seen as an obstacle blocking the way, and obstacle “from within” notably his claim that the approach which is presented as a unity here, is dirempted by an epistemological rupture, between Hegel (“ideology”) and Marx (“science”), according to Althusser the early Marx still errs on the Hegelian side of the divide. The criticism of Engels discussed in Chap. 3 was likewise an attempt to create a divide between science and ideology, in this case, between Marx and Engels.

Louis Althusser