Louis Althusser | |
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| Born | Louis Pierre Althusser 16 October 1918 |
| Died | 22 October 1990 (aged 72) Paris, France |
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| Spouse | Hélène Rytmann (m. c. 1975; d. 1980) |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Continental philosophy Western Marxism Structural Marxism |
| Institutions | École Normale Supérieure |
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Louis Pierre Althusser (UK: /ˌæltʊˈsɛər/, US: /ˌɑːltuːˈsɛər/;[4] French: [altysɛʁ]; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy.
Althusser was a long-time member and sometimes a strong critic of the French Communist Party (Parti communiste français, PCF). His arguments and theses were set against the threats that he saw attacking the theoretical foundations of Marxism. These included both the influence of empiricism on Marxist theory, and humanist and reformist socialist orientations which manifested as divisions in the European communist parties, as well as the problem of the cult of personality and of ideology. Althusser is commonly referred to as a structural Marxist, although his relationship to other schools of French structuralism is not a simple affiliation and he was critical of many aspects of structuralism. He later described himself as a social anarchist.[5]
Althusser's life was marked by periods of intense mental illness. In 1980, he killed his wife, the sociologist Hélène Rytmann, by strangling her. He was declared unfit to stand trial due to insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital for three years. He did little further academic work, dying in 1990.
- ^ "Introduction to Louis Althusser; Module on Ideology".
- ^ Horner, Robyn (2005). Jean-Luc Marion: a Theo-Logical Introduction. Burlington: Ashgate. p. 3.
- ^ Dunn, Hopeton S. (2014). "A Tribute to Stuart Hall". Critical Arts. 28 (4): 758. doi:10.1080/02560046.2014.929228. ISSN 1992-6049. S2CID 144415843.
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011). Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
- ^ "The Crisis of Marxism: An interview with Louis Althusser".
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