1 | Althusser: Marxism and Philosophy

Episode Overview

• The hosts introduce Louis Althusser's central thesis that philosophy is not a neutral, apolitical discipline but is fundamentally a form of "class struggle in theory."
• The discussion explores how philosophy functions ideologically by drawing a "dividing line" between what is considered scientific truth and what is considered false or ideological, thereby serving specific class interests.
• The episode examines Althusser's complex relationship between science, ideology, and philosophy, where science produces truths and ideology is an inescapable lived reality.
• The hosts engage with major critiques of Althusser, particularly the charge that his structuralist framework is overly deterministic and leaves no room for human agency or a subject.
• The conversation contextualizes Althusser's work as a polemic against humanist Marxism, particularly the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre, and assesses his attempt to move beyond the classic base-superstructure model.

Key Concepts

• Philosophy as Class Struggle: The core thesis that philosophy is not a neutral pursuit of truth but a political practice embedded in material struggles, representing class interests in the realm of theory.
• Ideology and the Subject: Althusser's concept of ideology as an inescapable, "imaginary" relationship to real conditions, which raises critical questions about structural determinism and the role of human agency.
• Science vs. Ideology: The relationship where science produces knowledge, while ideology represents our lived relationship to material conditions. Philosophy's role is to intervene by drawing a line of demarcation between the two.
• Critique of Humanist Marxism: Althusser’s polemic against thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre, whose emphasis on radical individual freedom he viewed as a bourgeois idealist ideology detached from material reality.
• The Base-Superstructure Problem: Althusser's attempt to move beyond a simplistic, mechanistic model of economic determinism through concepts like "relative autonomy" and "overdetermination," which grant the superstructure its own efficacy.

Quotes

• At 1:34 - "'philosophy is like class struggle in theory.'" - Gil introduces the central Althusserian thesis for the episode's discussion.
• At 5:41 - "I think that philosophy, like, the way it thinks about itself is that it's like the queen of the sciences, you know what I mean?" - Lillian characterizes the traditional self-perception of philosophy as a detached, higher form of knowledge.
• At 25:44 - "The charge is that it's structure without a subject." - A succinct summary of the most common criticism leveled against Althusser's structuralist Marxism.
• At 27:37 - "I'm gonna throw some massive shade at Althusser right now... I think that he tries to get away from the base and superstructure model, and I just don't think he's successful... because he doesn't actually know anything about economics or what actually happens in the base." - A sharp critique suggesting Althusser's theoretical project is limited by a lack of concrete economic and historical analysis.
• At 56:05 - "Philosophy represents politics in the domain of theory, or to be precise, with the sciences, and vice versa... philosophy represents scientificity in politics with classes engaged in the class struggle." - A quote encapsulating Althusser's definition of philosophy as a mediating practice between science and politics.

Takeaways

• Philosophy is never a neutral or apolitical discipline; it is inherently a site of political and class struggle that defines what is considered true or false.
• The denial of having an ideology is itself a powerful ideological position, and all intellectual work contains "class instincts" and serves material interests.
• Althusser's structuralism challenges humanist ideas of pure freedom, forcing a re-evaluation of how much agency individuals truly possess within overarching social and economic structures.
• In the Althusserian view, philosophy's primary function is not to produce ultimate truths but to act as a political tool that intervenes between scientific knowledge and class struggle.