Customer Reviews

Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays

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This is an excellent text if you are interested in having your reality turned on its head. I have used this reference in almost every paper I have written since beginning my path down the winding road of critical theory. I recommend it to anyone who thinks about why we think the way we do, anyone interested in hegemony, and anyone who thinks something is wrong with our world but s/he feels s/he just can't put a finger on what it is. This is a foundational text for anyone studying literary theory or philosophy. It contains the famous I.S.A. essay, a must read for anyone who functions metacognitively!

Althusser is often undervalued in the French academy these days, but this contemporary disdain for the late Marxist is unwarranted, for he will prove to be one of the significant political minds of the latter half of the 20th century. This collection of essays addresses a number of issues inherent in the philosophical system and development of Marxist thought. Althusser's anti-humanist reading of Marx is useful in his repudiation of easy humanist exhortations about the essence of man, or the early Marx's 'species being.' Lenin and Philosophy attempts to reassert the significance of Lenin as a thinker of historical materialism. Althusser's structuralist account of the development of historical materialism seeks to demarcate philosophy as praxis-philosophy draws the lines which are to deflect false ideas. The essay on the Ideological State Apparatus is where Althusser develops his famous notion of 'interpellation,' or 'hailing'. The application of psychoanalytic discourse resolves a number of problems regarding Marx's work on 'false consciousness.' The essays on art (particularly Cremonini), are also provocative, though immensely difficult.

I'm not sure there are many essays on Western philosophy as a solid as the ones in this collection by Althusser. This is a great collection, well-translated and complete. In particular, I found the article "Ideology and Ideological Apparatuses" to be memorable and well-reasoned. I'm better for having read it.

the essays are as they were written - that being said - philosophy isn't an easy read - so prepared, there are no interpretations or anyone to hold your hand. what you see is what you get. if you want to read essays from historically relevant philosophers, buy the book. if your not interested in marxist theory or any arguments sprung from it, don't buy this book. if your patient and have a sense of humor and are interested in this stuff, buy this book. if your a college student and hate this stuff, buy something else. like a bag of doritos.