this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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What book? I am not familiar with Althusser. I do read and often, so I’m always willing to read something else.
I’ve read the communist manifesto back in Army rotc. Communism had just collapsed but it was still required reading.
I'd recommend 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus' as Althusser's foundational text. His essay 'On the Materialist Dialectic' is the one where he talks about what I brought up. It can be tricky to understand if you haven't read much dialectic theory before Althusser, but he basically argues that there's a plurality of economic classes and activities, each with some degree of autonomy, but all of them depend on one another to a degree that they shape the boundaries of the other.
I will point out that in very clear terms that Althusser's own battle with mental illness shaped much of his philosophical work. He was very interested in structure and how various people were slotted into formations completely outside of themselves. He had a lifelong battle with schizophrenia that had him institutionalized at various points and in one very severe episode he accidentally killed his own wife.
He didn't believe in free will, is what I mean.
Well that I agree with. As I said the two class theory is bunk. There are many classes and they intersect. While I’m not super rich like Zuckerberg, I’m not exploited like a Walmart employee. I’m actually paid fairly for my work and not really mistreated at all.
Yet you have Amazon workers peeing in plastic bottles, and people still buy from Amazon.
So yes, I will read it.
My education is heavily focused on psychology. So I’m sure it’ll enjoy his take on things.