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The Complete Marquis de Sade : Volume One : Introduction and Biography Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue Philosophy in the Bedroom

by Marquis de Sade

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Aug 09, 2026 12:38AM

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Wuthering Heights

by Emily Brontë

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Aug 09, 2026 12:37AM

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Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays

by Louis Althusser

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Leo46 said: " I believe this to be the unequivocal introduction to Althusser’s thought (Althusserian Marxism, Althusser’s Marxism-Leninism, etc.). I say this both to Marxist-Leninists and those who are not. For the prior, this is where Althusser is the most explic I believe this to be the unequivocal introduction to Althusser’s thought (Althusserian Marxism, Althusser’s Marxism-Leninism, etc.). I say this both to Marxist-Leninists and those who are not. For the prior, this is where Althusser is the most explicitly communist in the Marxist-Leninist sense (militant, revolutionary, and useful for socialist theory), and for the latter, this is where one learns how integral Marxism-Leninism is to Althusser’s entire project and philosophy, which is easily diluted by his possible ‘post-structuralist’ label and the general discontents with 21st-century academic theory (this is why you can see scholars claim Althusser as their ‘favorite Marxist’ yet have essentially zero grasp of revolutionary people’s history and praxis, being literal liberals or some other vague leftist). Also, this collection is where you can find Althusser most clear in his writing (or speaking) while retaining the depth of his thought in some of the most important essays to date (Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses the most famous of them). Frederic Jameson also perfectly places these essays in their context by his introduction: this is Althusser’s “war on all fronts to restore Marxism-Leninism to its original class-based antagonistic stance” (viii).
I will keep this review shorter by plugging my own essay I wrote studying under a 2nd generation Althusserian where I utilize the three most Lenin-centric essays (Philosophy as a Revolutionary Weapon, Lenin and Philosophy, and Lenin before Hegel) in this book to argue for Lenin’s importance in Philosophy proper: https://led4646.wixsite.com/leodeng/p...
Besides these three essays, his preface for the French edition of Marx’s Capital notably advises a ‘proletarian’ reading order, where the first Part on the commodity is skipped because of its lasting Hegelian influence and thus, difficulty in reading for someone without any background in canonical philosophy. The first Part is then come back to after the more straightforward Parts (2-4, 6-8) and to be read with “infinite caution.” Part 5 (“The Production of Absolute and Relative Surplus-value”) comes last. There’s other interesting context and commentary in this preface but the main thesis is still very arguable.
Then, there is the famous “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” that importantly emphasizes the absolute significance of the two concepts/phenomena of Ideology (connected to subject) and Reproduction. The basic premise of the argument is that Althusser takes the Marxist conception of base and superstructure and shows how material the reality of the superstructure actually is, especially in constant, necessary relation to the reproduction of capitalism. The material reality of the superstructure is precisely Ideology—a “profoundly unconscious” phenomenon that is disseminated by the Ideological State Apparatuses (private institutions like Education, the Church, Family, Mass Media, etc.) that are material spots/places of ritual and guides the material behaviors and practices of such and such ideologue. Additionally, the primary function of ideology is to reproduce the relations of production that ultimately upholds the mode of production, which is how capitalism and thus, society function. Ultimately, if you reflect on the infinite complexity of niches and roles that allow society to function the way it does, the younger generations have to be taught to uphold society in the way it previously functioned, and if they disagree, they can revolt. This is what Althusser means by the Ideological State Apparatuses being a site or battleground for revolution(?). Furthermore, Althusser argues that Ideology is material because it is always-already existing and changing while humans are born into this world—already attached to these material sites of ritual and material practices and behaviors. Thus, subjects are always-already ideological. Going back to Marx’s German Ideology, Ideology has no history because it is precisely the eternal reflection of the history of ideologies—Ideology in general has no history. “If it is true that the representation of the real conditions of existence of the individuals occupying the posts of agents of production, exploitation, repression, ideologization and scientific practice, does in the last analysis arise from the relations of production, and from relations deriving from the relations of production, we can say the following: all ideology represents in its necessarily imaginary distortion not the existing relations of production (and the other relations that derive from them), but above all the (imaginary) relationship of individuals to the relations of production and the relations that derive from them. What is represented in ideology is therefore not the system of the real relations which govern the existence of individuals, but the imaginary relation of those individuals to the real relations in which they live.” “Ideas have disappeared as such (insofar as they are endowed with an ideal or spiritual existence), to the precise extent that it has emerged that their existence is inscribed in the actions of practices governed by rituals defined in the last instance by an ideological apparatus. It therefore appears that the subject acts insofar as he is acted by the following system (set out in the order of its real determination): ideology existing in a material ideological apparatus, prescribing material practices governed by a material ritual, which practices exist in the material actions of a subject acting in all consciousness according to his belief.” Thus, there is a double constitution between subject and ideology—Ideology only exists for subjects, and practice (by subjects) is always in Ideology. An important material manifestation, then, of Ideology that shows up as instrument is the famous idea of ‘interpellation.’ The example by Althusser is when a police officer shouts ‘hey, you’ to someone on the street and thus, interpellating (hailing/addressing) them as a subject, clearly subordinating the person to ruling ideology congealed in this moment--this moment of interpellation.
Lastly, the appendix has some great insights as “Freud and Lacan” champions and defends psychoanalysis as truly scientific in that it has a clear object that is the unconscious, while being backed with a theory that is ever-evolving. This is essentially Althusser’s Philosophy of Science that was extremely influential in France only (although for a short time), where a practice, technique, and theory were necessary for a genuine science. Obviously, this would also mean the critical view of the positivistic sciences that have no theory and flawed technique, which also lays vulnerable to unintentionally upholding the status quo (which is extremely clear in many STEM fields today, but Althusser points out Biology interestingly in this chapter). The “Letter on Art” and “Cremonini, Painter of the Abstract” lays the foundation of art’s power of ‘redistributing the sensible’ precisely with the distance that it creates with the audience that Ranciere takes up afterward.
Ultimately, this is one of the most important appraisals of Lenin in the realm of Philosophy and for serious theoretical discussion to consider his thought again. Furthermore, you see the ever-present militancy and revolutionary consciousness of Althusser himself as a true attempt to revive and reinvigorate Marxism-Leninism for the next generations. His contributions to theory will always be remembered, especially on Ideology, but very importantly we have to read his completion of that essay in On the Reproduction of Capitalism. ...more "

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(page 139 of 272)
"Oh the Freud and Lacan essay. ISAs is a masterpiece" — Aug 13, 2023 06:44AM

Sep 11, 2023 07:14PM · see review

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