Abstract:
The structural Marxism of Althusser has been developed in reaction to two kinds of interpretation of Marx and his reading. Althusser first confronted against the method of Marxism orthodoxy and raised an analytical criticism about it; the second method which has been the object of criticism by Althusser was the Hegelistic Marxism and the circle of Frankfurt. He tried to give a tip-off in regard to the theory of Marxism، the theory of economical determinism، and the humanism method of Lucas as well as the circle of Frankfurt. The effort of Althusser in regard to the reductionism of Marxism theory was successful in a certain degree. However، his modification was mostly internal and has not saved the essence of the theory of Marxism in its fundamental boundaries in the field of ontology، epistemology، anthropology، and methodology. In this piece of writing we tried to reveal the assessment and the fundamental points related to the view and the bases of the theory in regard to the sociological view of Louis Althusser.
Machine summary:
The central assumption in Saussure's thought is that languages as systems—almost like culture as a system—are only understandable and studyable through relational terms; that is, the meanings conveyed by language are determined by and result from the difference between linguistic units within the context and structure of the language.
" Marx intends to refer and make understandable the origin of all structures of human societies, institutional nature, forms of art and culture, ideas and values, to the characteristics of the productive forces that humans possess.
These relations are not, on one hand, between agents and structures themselves, but rather between the structures themselves; and on the other hand, the point Althusser emphasizes is that societies must be viewed in terms of the relations between structures, not as a substance and its mode of expression";04 meaning that he does not accept the determinism of a substance which, in the expression of orthodox Marxism, is economics—the substance that brings all other social positions into existence.
The set of these relations, the economic structure of society, constitutes the real foundation upon which the legal and political superstructure arises and specific forms of social consciousness correspond.
The most important criticism of Marx and Althusser is that they have reduced religion to ideology, in the limited sense common in social sciences.
Jan Krapp, Classical Social Theory: An Introduction to the Thought of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel, translated by Shahnaz Mesmaparast, p.
- Krapp, Jan, Classical Social Theory: An Introduction to the Thought of Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Simmel, translated by Shahnaz Mesmaparast, Tehran, Agah Publications, 1384.
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