Louis Althusser and the Scientific Reading of Marxism

Abstract

If the defining characteristic of modern philosophy is its multiplicity of systems, then the defining characteristic of contemporary (French) philosophy is its multiplicity of methodologies, on the one hand, and its tendency to read and reread the philosophical heritage, especially the modern one, according to these methodologies, on the other. This is evident among structuralist philosophers. For example, Louis Althusser's reading of Karl Marx aimed to scientificize Marxism after it had been transformed into a humanistic/historical tendency and then into an ideology by those who had misread Marx and Capital.

Keywords: Structuralism, Methodology, Marxism