The Spectre of Hegel: Early Writings

by Louis Althusser, François Matheron

The first publication of seminal early writing by Louis Althusser. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Louis Althusser enjoyed virtually unrivalled status as the foremost living Marxist philosopher. Today, he is remembered as the scourge and severest critic of “humanist” or Hegelian Marxism, as the proponent of rigorously scientific socialism, and as the theorist who posited a sharp rupture—an epistemological break—between the early and the late Marx. This collection of texts from the period 1945-1953 turns these interpretations of Althusser on their head: we discover that there was a “young Althusser” as well as the “mature Althusser” we are already familiar with. In his fascinating Master’s thesis, “On Content in the Thought of G.W.F. Hegel” (1947), Althusser developed a position which he was later to attack ferociously: namely, that the revolutionary potential of the Hegelian dialectic could be defended against Hegel’s own political conservatism. We see Althusser still wrestling with the spectres of Hegel and of Catholicism in another long text, his letter to Jean Lacroix, and, finally, we see his own “epistemological break” in the piece “On Marxism” from 1953. Other texts included are his critique of Alexander KojÅve (whose interpretation Francis Fukoyama has recently revived) and his attack on the French Church’s teachings on women, sex and the family. Widely recognized as an intellectual giant of the late twentieth century, Althusser has left a towering legacy. This collection not only gives a unique insight into the formation of such a personality, but will also restore the “unknown Althusser” to the centre of the history of Marxism and of philosophy since the Second World War.

Genres: Philosophy

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1997

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

[Caris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only essay I found worth reading was “A Matter of Fact (1949)” which was, I would say, a materialist critique of the church institution.

[Skylar Jon Izzard · Rating 3 out of 5]

From a biographical-historical perspective, this is a really interesting collection of essays that chronicles a lesser known period of Althusser's theoretical development. However, these are relatively uninteresting understandings of Hegel that would inevitably be surpassed by Althusser's burgeoning Spinozist-Marxism. I'd give it a read if you're interested in the historical development of Althusser's unique contributions to Marxism, but I'd give it a pass if you're more interested in Hegel.

[Leigh Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Althusser’s early works on Hegel (and other topics), which were interesting, even if not groundbreaking. The best essay was actually the appendix on Marxism. More for those interested in Althusser than those interested in Hegel.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's about time to read Hegel own writings.