Book Review 2:Reading Capital (Louis Althusser’s Analysis)

Das Capital, which was considered as a critique of political economy, is one of the major works of Karl Marx. It was published in 1867 in German language. The volume-1 has been composed in 1867 and it was about the production process of capital. This is a critical analysis of political economy and it was mainly revealed the contradictions that arise from the mode of production of capitalism. Engels introduced the second volume after the death of Marx as the circulation process of capital.  

However, western Marxism has marked their dominance within the context of Marxism. Althusser was one of the most important western Marxists who were contributed to the renewal of Marxism. He has read Das Capital by using his western Marxists views. This assignment analyses his reading of Das Capital, which was named as Reading Capital. 

An analysis on Althuser’s Reading Capital

Althusser emerged in ‘the revival of Marxist theory occasioned by the radical movements of the 1960s’ (Craig, 1998, p. 192). Pour Marx (For Marx) and Lire Le Capital (Reading Capita- 1965l) can be considered as his main writings in which he himself introduced as an intellectual figure. Reading Capital is a collection of a series of seminars delivered by Althusser at the École Normale Superiéure where its intellectual basis was taken from structuralism. Althusser reinterpreted Marx in collaboration with a group of pupils. Moreover, ‘he wrote Capital to put a weapon in the hands of workers. In it he presented a detailed analysis of the fundamental dynamics of the struggles between the capitalist and the working classes’ (Cleaver, 2000, p. 23). 

Althusser’s reinterpretation of Marx has engaged with the ‘theory of interpretation’. He has suggested that ‘there is no such thing as an innocent reading’ (Craig, 1998, p. 193). A new theory of reading is required because each individual act, which is directed to the text, carries a particular theoretical presupposition. That new theory of reading can be defined as one, which is concerned to recognize the theoretical framework that splashes by the text itself. Althusser named it as ‘problematic’ that can be stressed as the theoretical framework, which is concealed within the text itself. It does not visible on the surface. 

Althusser believed that ‘as Lacan had called for a “return to Freud” and had broken with psychologism, his own return to Marx had contributed to renewal of historical materialism by announcing a break with the prevalent Marxist orthodoxies built on economism, historicism and humanism’ (Carver & Martin, 2006, p. 184). He says that, as Freudian psychoanalysis suggests uncovering the repressed feelings and unattainable desires, concealed theoretical presuppositions should be uncovered by using the text’s silences, gaps, and inconsistencies. But when applying this theory of reading, Althusser suggests that Marx’s writings which are up to Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 are belong to one problematic.  According to Althusser, it is an ideological one. For him, ‘their leading characteristic is their humanism: history is depicted as the unfolding of a human essence which alienated under capitalism, will find fulfillment under communism’ (Craig, 1998, p. 193). 

Furthermore, What Althusser suggests is that ‘these early works of Marx are separated from his later writings, above all Capital, by an “epistemological break” marking the formation of a new science of history’ (Craig, 1998, p. 193). Nevertheless, the mature Marx was considered as a theoretical anti-humanist. . Moreover, ‘he wrote Capital to put a weapon in the hands of workers. He presented a detailed analysis of the fundamental dynamics of the struggles between the capitalist and the working classes’ (Cleaver, 2000, p. 23). For the matured Marx, history is a process that lacks a subject. According to Althusser, not only the active part, but also the passive part is essential in his reading of the book. In the state of affairs, there are both active part (police, government) and the passive part (ideology, religion, tradition, and culture).

Although it is impossible to understand Althusser and his acquaintances as they have emphasized structuralism, structuralism has supported them to renovate Marxism in a way that it could define post war capitalism. Structural Marxism arose as an opposition to humanistic Marxism that was dominated in most of the western countries. It is an approach, which is used to understand Marxism through structuralism that was most influential in France in 1960s. The French philosopher Louis Althusser and his followers mostly use this approach. However, during 1970s this structural Marxism was highly influential among the philosophers, sociologists, and political theorists outside of France.

For Althusser, Marx is similar to Freud because the young Marx was actually not a Marxist as same as the young Freud was not a Freudian. Reading Capital mainly discusses Marx’s Das Capital. Besides, he discusses various themes in Das Capital as dialectical materialism, historical materialism, labor theory, and value (use value and exchange value). At the same time, he has written another book called For Marx. It reinterprets the work of Marx suggesting as epistemological break from young Marx who influenced by Hegel and the old Marx who wrote Das Capital.

Althusser has suggested Marxism as a ‘science’, which is a study of objective structures. In addition, for him, historical, phenomenological, and humanistic Marxism were based on Marx’s early works. Therefore, he considered them as pre-scientific ideologies. He proves his idea by saying that history is a process that does not have a particular goal. 

In 1971, Leszek Kolakowski argues that Althusser’s theory has built on three main elements which can be defined as common sense banalities that have taken the support of pointlessly problematical neologisms, traditional Marxist concepts and which remain vague even after Althusser’s explanation. Besides, structural Marxism was considered as unscientific. 

Althusser suggested that Reading Capital is a tool to understand the project of Das Capital. For Althusser, people have realized the worth of Das Capital in every dispute, conflict, defeats, and victories of the workers that are occurred because of capitalistic movement. He says that we have read even bits of Das Capital as we have already came into the world. In my point of view, Althusser was trying to explain that we are in the capitalist project from the day that we were born. The title; Reading Capital, is itself encourages people to read it as Althusser wanted to train people to be philosophized.

The scientific tendencies of Althusser’s views should be inquired to get an understanding on The Reading Capital. According to him, all knowledge is formed within a particular theoretical field, which forms all knowledge. He referred it as ‘symptomatic reading’. It can be defined as a critical method that is used to extract the accurate and the true meaning of a text on what the text does and does not sate. He says, it is possible to produce new knowledge only through symptomatic reading. Althusser suggests that it is very important to understand the epistemological break from the existing philosophical tradition. 

Althusser emphasize Reading Capital as a political intervention. The important fact is that, Marx have done  a symptomatic reading on David Ricardo and Adam Smith’s works and took ideas from them when developing his own philosophy. In other words, the gaps of Smith’s and Ricardo’s views have lead Marx to form his views on labour. Similarly, Althusser has done a symptomatic reading on Das Capital of Marx in order to present his philosophical and political intervention. The Reading Capital mainly focuses on construction of Social Reality, which was the main point that Marx has given his attention. 

There arises a question that whether it is effective to read Capital in the contemporary society. In other words, there arises a question about the applicability of Capital in the contemporary world. Some people argue that the conclusions that were summarized by Althusser contradict within the text itself. For that, many people have criticized his book. On the other hand, some argue that, Reading Capital has led people to identify skeptic views in both Das Capital and Reading Capital. 

Conclusion 

While there is a critique of Althusser’s epistemological project, he is credited for pioneering in epistemology in Marxist tradition. He allowed non-Marxist tendencies to affect his ideas. Other than that, the Marxism and structuralism of Althusser has formed a new discussion. When it comes to the structuralism aspect of Althusser, it was considered to be a revolt against historical materialism. It should be mentioned that Reading Capital has combined French Structuralism with Immanuel Kant’s epistemology. That has lead him to make the renewal of Marxist though and historical materialism. In the epistemological project of Kant has asserted the materialist distinction between the knowledge and the real as the distinction between phenomena and noumena. Althusser’s critique of historicism is based on the failure to make the above-mentioned distinction between knowledge and the real. 

His concern on the knowledge is based on the Kantian sense, which the distinction between knowledge and real is constructed according to the way in which we understand the world and the way the world really is (phenomena and noumena). Without understanding this, we are not able to understand whether we understand the world through an ideological point of view or not. In addition, it would be impossible to understand whether the study of capitalism is ideological or not. Althusser’s scientific influence arises here because he mentions that scientific concepts could proceed with the real concepts that represent only the real.     

Althusser’s work can be considered as a kind of liberation regardless of his reconstruction of historical materialism because he liberated Marxists from a penitentiary where they have kept imprisonment with a conceptual frame. He emphasized that there are yet to be explored in Marxism. Moreover, he established a research project through historical Marxism. 

Long passages of Reading Capital discuss how to read Capital and its object. However, book is a thought-provoking one and a landmark of French philosophical thought, which was highly influential when reconstructing Marxism. Althusser and his students offer a symptomatic reading of Das Capital and read him as anti-humanists and anti-historians. Although Althusser suggests that the knowledge is derived within a particular theoretical field, this is problematic anyway. However, Althusser has done a great contribution towards Marxism by giving a highly influential value to the Das Capital. 

Works Cited

Althusser, L. (2012). Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation). In S. Zizek (Ed.), Mapping Ideology (p. 348). Verso.

Althusser, L., & Balibar, E. (2009). Reading Capital (Radical Thinkers). (B. Brewster, Trans.) Verso.

Carver, T., & Martin, J. (Eds.). (2006). Continental Political Thought . New York : PALGRAVE MACMILLAN.

Cleaver, H. (2000). Reading Capital Politically. United Kingdom: Anti/Thesis and AK Press.

Craig, E. (Ed.). (1998). Routledge Encyclopediea of Philosophy (Vol. 1). New York: Routledge.