tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post4147012133932789235..comments2024-03-19T06:22:40.011-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: ALTHUSSER AND PORKY PIGRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-66639594804046882562014-12-28T20:01:41.635-05:002014-12-28T20:01:41.635-05:00I never thought that he was worth studying either,...I never thought that he was worth studying either, and I have not spent much time reading him. But he deserves some credit, I think, for shifting Marxism out of the Stalinist mold. <br /><br />Important to remember that in the 1950s and early 60s, Marxism was as vulgar and as Stalinist as one can imagine, and completely stuck within the confines of the Stalinist CPs. <br /><br />Althusser's notions of relative autonomy and overdetermination were key to the de-Stalinization that takes place in Marxist studies in the 60s. Neo-Marxism after WWI has a lot going for it but the CP clamped down on this as Stalin put his imprint on the theory. His notion of the 'early' humanist Marx and the later 'scientific' Marx was a load of rubbish. But good to have it articulated so as to address it. <br /><br />Interesting enough, Althusser also admitted that his academic success was based more on gossiping and memorisation (some may consider this plagiarism), and that his understanding of Marx was quite limited. <br /><br />Here's one of the famous quotes in Althusser's autobiographical statements:<br /> <br />"In fact my philosophical knowledge of texts was rather limited. I was very familiar with Descartes and Malebranche, knew a little Spinoza, nothing about Aristotle, the Sophists and the Stoics, quite a lot about Plato and Pascal, nothing about Kant, a bit about Hegel, and finally a few passages of Marx which I had studied closely. My way of picking up and then really getting to know philosophy was legendary: I used to enjoy saying it was all done by 'hearsay' (the first confused form of knowledge according to Spinoza). I learnt from Jacques Martin who was cleverer than me by gleaning certain phrases in passing from my friends, and lastly from the seminar papers and essays of my own students. In the end, I naturally made it a point of honour and boasted that 'I learnt by hearsay'. This distinguished me quite markedly from all my university friends who were much better informed than me, and I used to repeat it by way of paradox and provocation, to arouse astonishment, incredulity, and admiration (!) in other people, to my great embarrassment and pride." <br /><br />Louis Althusser, The future lasts forever: a memoir. New York: The New Press, 1992, pp. 165-166.classtrugglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17537776267404584351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-56674153836920696092014-10-28T18:07:47.772-04:002014-10-28T18:07:47.772-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Ian J. Seda Irizarryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03791805107306447252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-48074914757345195332014-10-18T11:16:51.585-04:002014-10-18T11:16:51.585-04:00richard wolff has a popular weekly radio show/podc...richard wolff has a popular weekly radio show/podcast, "economic update," in which he discusses news items and economic topics from a marxist perspective, in a very accessible way. some episodes are available here:<br /><br />http://rdwolff.com/category/article-type/podcastUtopian Yurihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00793188513692796773noreply@blogger.com