Synopses & Reviews
Together with Louis Althusser’s book For Marx, Reading Capital represents one of the foundational texts of the school of “structuralist Marxism” which transformed the face of modern philosophy and social theory. Presided over by the magnetic and intellectually coruscating figure of Althusser, the structuralist Marxists attempted no less than an intellectual revolution against dominant interpretations of Marx. Seeking to cleanse Marx of all Hegelian impurities and recast his thought on a rigorously scientific basis, in this work Althusser and one of his most brilliant students and colleagues, Etienne Balibar, subjected Marx’s method in Capital, his critique of classical political economy, and the fundamental terms of historical materialism, to searching textual analysis and challenging conceptual reconstruction. Inaugurating a new way of reading Marx that was to prove both intensely stimulating and capable of generating fierce controversy, Reading Capital is a work that cannot be bypassed by anyone interested in Marxism, and in theory more generally, in this century.
Synopsis
Althusser's systematic theory of Marxism cleansed of all idealist and Hegelian notions.
Synopsis
A landmark of French thought, Reading Capitalis no less than an attempt to topple the edifice of Western Marxism and rebuild it from the original foundations.
Synopsis
Establishing a rigorous program of "symptomatic reading" that cuts through the silences and lacunae of Capitalto reveal its philosophical core, Louis Althusser interprets Marx's structural analysis of production as a revolutionary break'"the basis of a completely new science. Building on a series of Althussers's conceptual innovations that includes "overdetermination" and "social formation," tienne Balibar explores the historical and structural facets of production as Marx understood them, scrutinizing many of the most fundamental points in Capital, as though for the first time.
About the Author
Louis Althusser was born in Algeria in 1918 and died in France in 1990. He taught philosophy for many years at the Ecole Normale Superieur in Paris, and was a leading intellectual in the French Communist Party. His books include
For Marx;
Reading Capital (with Etienne Balibar);
Essays in Ideology;
Politics and History: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Marx;
Machiavelli and Us; and
The Spectre of Hegel.
Étienne Balibar is a French Marxist philosopher and the most celebrated student of Louis Althusser. He is also one of the leading exponents of French Marxist philosophy and the author of Spinoza and Politics, The Philosophy of Marx and co-author of Race, Nation and Class and Reading Capital.