Louis Althusser: Beyond and Within Reductionism

Althusser tried to illuminate a more rigorous and richer definition of Marxist philosophy because he felt that already established interpretations of Marxism cannot comprehend the realities his contemporary society was confronted with. This essay aims to investigate Althusser’s criticism of various interpretations of Marxism, that is to say, empiricism, historicism, humanism, and economism. While interrogating his evaluation of so-called reductionist interpretations of Marxism, this essay also illustrate his various epistemological and historical concepts: knowledge; practice; overdetermination; science; structural causality; subject and ideology. This essay ultimately interrogates his concept of subjectivity and reductionism. Although Althusser tried to overcome the reductionist interpretations of Marxism through his reinterpretation of it, it seemed that he could not escape the trap of reductionism completely. His theory of the ISAs (Ideological State Apparatuses) to the question of “the reproduction of the relations of production” reveals his functionalism. His reductionism is also shown in his concept of science because Althusser excludes science from the social formation. Even though his theoretical and philosophical concepts cannot completely get out of reductionism, it can be said that he built the new road sign in interpreting Marxism.