Wolff, Althusser, and Hegel: Outlining an Aleatory Materialist Epistemology

Abstract

In an argument first published in 1996, Richard Wolff showed that Marxist epistemology could be strengthened by introducing the Althusserian concept of overdetermination and elements of the Hegelian dialectic. While this essay wholeheartedly agrees with Wolff's work toward a reflexive Marxism, it finds his proposed reinsertion of Hegelian philosophy into Marxism problematic and argues that an alternative to Hegelianism can be found in Althusser's arguments for aleatory materialism. Highlighting the importance of “chance” events, aleatory materialism contains the same epistemological reflexivity that Wolff finds in Hegel's dialectic yet provides a stronger supporting ontology for Marxist theory. Aleatory materialism supports Marxist epistemology by detailing arguments for historical conjunctures that contain both overdetermined contradictions and situated causality. From this perspective, it becomes possible to argue that epistemology can contain both theoretical analysis of contradictions and concrete analysis. This allows for complexity without abstraction and specificity without reductionism or essentialism.