Essere marxisti in filosofia

by Louis Althusser

Che cosa è la filosofia? Che cosa la distingue dalle scienze? E, soprattutto, che cosa vuol dire essere marxisti in filosofia? Questi i principali interrogativi su cui riflette Louis Althusser nel suo libro scritto nel 1976, ma pubblicato postumo solo nel 2015 e ora tradotto in italiano. L'autore sottopone a una critica puntuale e rigorosa tutta la tradizione filosofica da Platone a Kant, da Hegel a Heidegger, nessuno ne esce indenne. Se con Epicuro, Machiavelli e Spinoza si fa strada una diversa idea di filosofia, è però con Marx che si aprono prospettive realmente nuove e promettenti. In realtà, secondo Althusser, Marx non ha fondato l'ennesima filosofia, ma una rivoluzionaria scienza della storia che spiega finalmente come nascono, si evolvono e si trasformano le pratiche umane. Solo il marxismo, pertanto, può contrapporsi seriamente all'ideologia dominante e fornire un efficace strumento teorico con cui sovvertire l'ordine politico e sociale.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Louis Pierre Althusser (1918–1990) was one of the most influential Marxist philosophers of the 20th Century. As they seemed to offer a renewal of Marxist thought as well as to render Marxism philosophically respectable, the claims he advanced in the 1960s about Marxist philosophy were discussed and debated worldwide. Due to apparent reversals in his theoretical positions, to the ill-fated facts of his life, and to the historical fortunes of Marxism in the late twentieth century, this intense interest in Althusser's reading of Marx did not survive the 1970s. Despite the comparative indifference shown to his work as a whole after these events, the theory of ideology Althusser developed within it has been broadly deployed in the social sciences and humanities and has provided a foundation for much “post-Marxist” philosophy. In addition, aspects of Althusser's project have served as inspiration for Analytic Marxism as well as for Critical Realism. Though this influence is not always explicit, Althusser's work and that of his students continues to inform the research programs of literary studies, political philosophy, history, economics, and sociology. In addition, his autobiography has been subject to much critical attention over the last decade. At present, Althusser's philosophy as a whole is undergoing a critical reevaluation by scholars who have benefited from the anthologization of hard-to-find and previously unpublished texts and who have begun to engage with the great mass of writings that remain in his archives.

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspirational book, for dark times. Althusser's dark times shape, shield and mock this book. This was the only 'complete' manuscript Althusser produced in the last decade of his life, after strangling his wife, Helene Rytmann, to death in 1980.

The book captures what Edward Said described as 'late style.' The thinking revealed in this book is the thinking of a master. The prose is playful and destructive in equal measure. His disappointments in 'objects,' knowledge, Marxism, philosophy and life are clearly sketched.

As I read this new edition from Bloomsbury, which is beautifully constructed, I realized how Althusser was shadowed by death in this last period. The book is 'about' Marxism, recognizing that Engels and Lenin bequeathed more to Marxist philosophy than Karl Marx. It is 'about' philosophy and the denial of the object, creating the space for science to focus on it. But more poignantly, it is a book of death. It reads life through the gauze of death. It reads thinking through the gauze of when thinking stops.

A provocative, confronting book, filled with darkness and regret, and ideas that may probably fail. It is a masterwork for Althusser's last decade. It is a rubric to interpret our present.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Althusser'i okumak keyifli. Kitap gerçekten fikri açıdan ufuk açıcı ve dili de gayet güzel. Tabi bunun için belki de çevirmene teşekkür etmek isteniyor. Kitabı okurken en zorlandığım kısım ise, her ne kadar psikolojik sorunlarından kaynaklandığı yazılmış olsa da, karısını boğarak öldürmüş bir insanın kitabını okumak. Yazarın hayatını okumadan kitaba başlasaydım daha iyi olacaktı. Belki de o yüzden kitap hala elimde...

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Althusser succumbed to the spiral staircase of madness due to his pursuit of what must be recognized as what is unobtainable in life, and in philosophy as well: the drive to affirm being through the negation of selfhood, or what we must in retrospect consider as a fairly dubious project, namely, that of demonstrating that Karl Marx, his hero, must be awarded a significant position as the thinker who sought the affection of his peers through the negation of the historical tradition of philosophy he inherited and sought to leave his mark on.  I consider such an endeavor, if and when it is pursued with the most venomous rigor, as my former colleague Ken Park once did, constitutes the ultimate break signifying the fatal step that true visionaries have the ill-favored prize awarded by fate, albeit with all the distinction and honors that history can convey.  To recapitulate, as an example of a thinker who, having detected the idealism in materialistic philosophy and the materialism in idealist philosophy, we may say that Althusser truly did succumb to what Sartre would have called a mind-wrenching philosophical vertigo that led him to strangle his wife, whom he writes about in his books, always suggesting the fear that he would experience if she were to ever leave him and that, as a solitary man, he would find himself confronted with the cold, agnostic structuralism that would become his milieu as a final parting goodbye.  Three stars.

[Karlo Mikhail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense but important intervention locating philosophy's ideological-political function and the need to make it serve the dominated classes in the class struggle.

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wenn Louis Althusser uns in 26 Kapiteln, deren einzelne Titel er uns vorenthält, mit „kristalliner Klarheit“ zeigt, wie man als Marxist die philosophische Spitzhacke schwingt, fühlt sich das an wie eine exklusive Einladung zum intellektuellen Klassenkampf – gemütlich vom Lehnstuhl aus. Man lernt hier nicht nur, wie man die Welt interpretiert, sondern auch, wie man sie mit „impeccabler Präzision“ so lange theoretisch bearbeitet, bis die ökonomische Obszönität der Gegenwart vor Scham im Boden versinkt. Dass er dabei Jean-François Revel charmant in die Schranken weist und jedem zutraut, sich selbst zu fragen, ob man eigentlich philosophieren kann, macht das Buch zum perfekten Handbuch für alle, die schon immer wissen wollten, wie man gleichzeitig elegant schreibt, das Kapital stürzt und dabei die philosophische Contenance wahrt. Ein unverzichtbares Training für den geistigen Widerstand, bei dem man zumindest auf dem Papier garantiert auf der richtigen Seite der Geschichte steht.

[Luca Lucasen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine gute Arbeit die zeigt, was Philosophie (nicht) ist und wie man als Marxist mit ihr umgehen muss. Wie kann man sich als Marxist in der Philosophie zurecht finden, welche Konzepte gibt es zu begutachten, was ist die Beziehung von Philosophie und Wissenschaft? Alles Fragen die angerissen werden. Vorallem die letzten Kapitel sind hier sehr aufschlussreich sowie Althusser's Kommentar zu der Frage, ob jeder philosophieren kann... In der Mitte des Buches war ich mir jedoch nicht ganz sicher was er uns hier sagen möchte, und bin mir nicht ganz sicher ob mir das weiter geholfen hat, wirklich die Conclusio zu verstehen. Alles in allem aber ein guter Read.

[Tomás · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uno puede no estar de acuerdo con Althusser en muchas cosas, pero hay cosas en las que, de plano, no tiene sentido llevarle la contraria. Aquí se esbozan algunas de las últimas, pero también de las primeras.

[Alice Nilsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Idk if it was the translation or this thing is dense + painful to read in french but it was a trip.

[Brayden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very very heavy in the philosophical jargon but had a lot of interesting concepts and ideas that helped to structure philosophy.