Rethinking Structure and Conjuncture in Althusser
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The relation between structure and conjuncture has been one of the biggest challenges facing social theory and Louis Althusser’s writings provide some of the most important interventions on this subject. Contrary to an image of Althusser first embracing and then abandoning structuralism, Althusser tried from the beginning to articulate the theory of structural causality with an insistence on the singularity of historical conjunctures. Althusser’s theoretical trajectory, despite his shortcomings, still offers a necessary starting point for a materialist conception of the relation between structural and conjunctural determinations that stresses the complex, uneven and overdetermined character of social reality without resorting either to a ‘surface phenomena/deep structures’ dualism or to the empiricism of simply registering singular practices.
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Althusser Louis Brewster Ben Politics and History: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Marx 1972 London New Left Books
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Althusser Louis Lock Grahame Essays in Self Criticism 1976 London New Left Books [1974]
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Althusser Louis Elliot Gregory Philosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the Scientists & Other Essays 1990 London Verso
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Althusser Louis Sur la reproduction 1995 Paris Presses Universitaires de France
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Althusser Louis Pour Marx 1996 Paris La Découverte
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Althusser Louis Goshgarian G.M. The Spectre of Hegel: Early Writings 1997a London Verso
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Althusser Louis Lettres à Franca 1997b Paris Stock/IMEC
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Althusser Louis Sintomer Yves La Solitude de Machiavelli 1998 Paris Presses Universitaires de France
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Althusser Louis Elliot Gregory Machiavelli and Us 1999a London Verso
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Althusser Louis Mehlman Jeffrey Writings on Psychoanalysis 1999b New York Columbia University Press
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Althusser Louis Goshgarian G.M. The Humanist Controversy and Other Writings 2003 London Verso
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Althusser Louis Brewster Ben For Marx 2005 London Verso
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Althusser Louis Goshgarian G.M. Philosophy of the Encounter 2006 London Verso
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Althusser Louis Goshgarian G.M. On the Reproduction of Capitalism: Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses 2014 London Verso
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Althusser Louis & Balibar Étienne Brewster Ben Reading Capital 1970 London New Left Books
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Althusser Louis, Balibar Étienne, Rancière Jacques, Establet Roger & Macherey Pierre Lire le Capital 1996 Paris Presses Universitaires de France
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Badiou Alain Toscano Alberto Logics of Worlds: Being and Event II 2009 London Continuum
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Balibar Étienne ‘Sur la dialectique historique. Quelques remarques critiques à propos de Lire le Capital’ La Pensée 1973 170 27 47
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Balibar Étienne ‘A nouveau sur la contradiction. Dialectiques des luttes de classes et lutte de classes dans la dialectique’ Sur la dialectique 1977 Paris Éditions Sociales
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Balibar Étienne ‘Les apories de la “transition” et les contradictions de Marx’ Sociologie et societés 1990a 22 1 83 91
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Balibar Étienne Curley Edwin & Moreau Pierre-François ‘Individualité, causalité, substance. Réflexions sur l’ontologie de Spinoza’ Spinoza: Issues and Directions 1990b The Proceedings of the Chicago Spinoza Conference Leiden Brill
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Balibar Étienne Armstrong Timothy ‘Foucault and Marx: The Question of Nominalism’ Michel Foucault, Philosopher 1992 Brighton Harvester Wheatsheaf
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Balibar Étienne Lazarus Sylvain ‘L’objet d’Althusser’ Politique et philosophie dans l’œuvre de Louis Althusser 1993 Paris Presses Universitaires de France
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Balibar Étienne Cohen Margaret & Robbins Bruce ‘Althusser’s Object’ Social Text 1994 39 157 188
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Balibar Étienne Althusser ‘Avant-propos’ 1996 1996
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Balibar Étienne Swenson James ‘Structuralism: A Destitution of the Subject?’ Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 2003 14 1 1 21
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Bensaïd Daniel Hallward Peter ‘Alain Badiou and the Miracle of the Event’ Think Again: Alain Badiou and the Future of Philosophy 2004 London Continuum
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Bosteels Bruno Badiou and Politics 2011 Durham, NC Duke University Press
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Callari Antonio & Ruccio David F. Postmodern Materialism and the Future of Marxist Theory: Essays in the Althusserian Tradition 1996 Middletown, CT Wesleyan University Press
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Deleuze Gilles Hurley Robert Spinoza: Practical Philosophy 1988 San Francisco City Lights Books
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Deleuze Gilles Lester Mark The Logic of Sense 2004a London Continuum
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Deleuze Gilles Desert Islands and Other Texts, 1953–1974 2004b Los Angeles Semiotext(e)
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Deleuze Gilles Patton Paul Difference and Repetition 2004c London Continuum
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Diefenbach Katja, Farris Sara R., Kirn Gal & Thomas Peter D. Encountering Althusser: Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought 2013 London Bloomsbury Academic
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Elliot Gregory Althusser: The Detour of Theory Historical Materialism 2006 Second Edition Leiden Brill Book Series
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Engels Frederick Socialism: Utopian and Scientific 2003 accessed 5 August 2013 available at: <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm> [1880]
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Goshgarian G.M. Althusser ‘Introduction’ 2003 2003
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Goshgarian G.M. Althusser ‘Introduction’ 2006 2006
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Goshgarian G.M. Diefenbach, Farris, Kirn & Thomas ‘The Very Essence of the Object, the Soul of Marxism and Other Singular Things: Spinoza in Althusser 1959–67’ 2013 2013
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Hardt Michael & Negri Antonio Commonwealth 2009 Cambridge, MA Belknap Press
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Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich di Giovanni George The Science of Logic 2010 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
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Ichida Yoshiniko & Matheron François ‘Un, deux, trois, quatre, dix mille Althusser?’ Multitudes 2005 21 167 178
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Lenin Vladimir Illich ‘KOMMUNISMUS, Journal of the Communist International’ 1920 accessed 14 June 2010 <http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/jun/12.htm>
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Macherey Pierre Stolze Ted In a Materialist Way: Selected Essays 1988 London Verso
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Macherey Pierre Introduction à l’Éthique de Spinoza. La seconde partie: La réalité mentale 1997 Paris Presses Universitaires de France
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Macherey Pierre Wall Geoffrey A Theory of Literary Production 2006 London Routledge
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Macherey Pierre Marx 1845. Les ‘Thèses’ sur Feuerbach. Traduction et commentaire 2008 Paris Éditions Amsterdam
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Macherey Pierre Ruddick Susan M. Hegel or Spinoza 2012 Minneapolis Minnesota University Press
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Marx Karl ‘Theses on Feuerbach’ 1845 accessed 14 June 2010 available at: <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/index.htm>
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Marx Karl & Engels Friedrich Selected Correspondence 1982 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Matheron Alexandre Individu et communauté chez Spinoza 1988 Paris Les Éditions de Minuit
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Matheron François Althusser ‘Introduction’ 1997 1997a
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Matheron François Moreau Pierre-François, Cohen-Boulakia Claude & Delbraccio Mireille ‘Louis Althusser et le “Groupe Spinoza”’ Lectures contemporaines de Spinoza 2012 Paris Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne
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Montag Warren ‘Althusser’s Nominalism: Structure and Singularity (1962–6)’ Rethinking Marxism 1998a 10 3 64 73
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Montag Warren Macherey ‘Introduction’ 1998b 1988
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Montag Warren Louis Althusser 2003 Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan
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Montag Warren Kouvélakis Eustache & Charbonnier Vincent ‘La dialectique à la cantonade: Althusser devant l’art’ Sartre, Lukács, Althusser: des marxistes en philosophie 2005 Paris Presses Universitaires de France
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Montag Warren Althusser and His Contemporaries: Philosophy’s Perpetual War 2013 Durham, NC Duke University Press
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Moulier Boutang Yann ‘L’interdit biographique et l’autorisation de l’œuvre’ Lire Althusser aujourd’hui 1997 Paris L’Harmattan
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Negri Antonio Callari & Ruccio ‘Notes on the Evolution of the Thought of the Later Althusser’ 1996 1996
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Poulantzas Nicos Classes in Contemporary Capitalism 1975 London New Left Books
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Poulantzas Nicos State, Power, Socialism 2000 London Verso
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Sibertin-Blanc Guillaume Maniglier Patrice ‘De la théorie du théâtre à la scène de la théorie: réflexions sur “Le ‘Picolo’: Bertolazzi et Brecht” d’Althusser’ Le moment philosophique des années 1960 en France 2011 Paris Presses Universitaires de France
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Spinoza Baruch Morgan Michael L. Complete Works 2002 Indianapolis Hackett
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Stolze Ted ‘Deleuze and Althusser: Flirting with Structuralism’ Rethinking Marxism 1998 10 3 51 63
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Terray Emmanuel Callari & Ruccio ‘An Encounter: Althusser and Machiavelli’ 1996 1996
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Thomas Peter D. ‘Philosophical Strategies: Althusser and Spinoza’ Historical Materialism 2002 10 3 71 113
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Tosel André Diefenbach, Farris, Kirn & Thomas ‘The Hazards of Aleatory Materialism in the Late Philosophy of Louis Althusser’ 2013 2013
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1
Engels 2003.
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2
Lenin 1920.
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4
Balibar 1994, p. 166.
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8
Althusser 2005.
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9
Althusser 2005, p. 104.
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10
Goshgarian 2006.
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11
Althusser 1972, p. 20.
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12
Althusser 1972, p. 46. It is interesting to note that Althusser’s depiction of Montesquieu searching for ‘a new language because he is speaking new truths’ (Althusser 1972, p. 14) summarises the theoretical challenge that Althusser would face.
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13
Althusser 2005, p. 98.
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14
Althusser 2005, p. 99.
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15
Althusser 2005, p. 100.
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17
Althusser 2005, p. 101.
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18
Althusser 2005, p. 205.
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19
Althusser 2005, pp. 178–9. Bruno Bosteels has stressed the importance of Althusser’s conception of overdetermination: ‘Methodologically speaking, the whole point of Althusser’s reading is not simply to reiterate Lenin’s well-known analysis but rather to ask how a structure actually seizes upon and becomes history or, to put it the other way around, how history eventalizes and periodizes the structure of a given situation at the site of a subjective intervention. Technically foreign to Lenin no less than to Marx yet supposedly already at work and implied in their analyses, Freud’s concept of overdetermination is thus imported into Marxism by Althusser in order to articulate history and structure without separating them, for example, in terms of concrete empirical fact and abstract transcendental or ontological principle’ (Bosteels 2011, p. 58).
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20
Althusser 2005, p. 113.
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21
Althusser and Balibar 1970, pp. 98–9.
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22
Althusser 1976, p. 126.
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23
Montag 2013.
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24
Balibar 2003, p. 11.
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25
In Deleuze 2004b.
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27
Stolze 1998.
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28
Montag 2013, pp. 97–100.
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29
Montag 2013, especially Part 1.
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30
Althusser and Balibar 1970, p. 188.
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32
Althusser and Balibar 1970, p. 187.
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34
Althusser and Balibar 1970, pp. 188–9.
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35
Miller 2012, p. 81.
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37
Althusser 2005, p. 138.
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38
Althusser 2005, p. 140.
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39
Sibertin-Blanc 2011, p. 261.
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40
Sibertin Blanc 2011, p. 271.
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41
Althusser 2005, p. 141.
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42
Althusser 2005, pp. 142–3.
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45
Montag 2013, p. 90.
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48
Goshgarian 2003, p. xv.
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49
In Althusser 2003.
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51
Althusser and Balibar 1970, pp. 108–9.
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52
Althusser and Balibar 1970, p. 209.
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53
Althusser and Balibar 1970, p. 215.
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54
Balibar 1973, p. 45. It is interesting to note how Althusser refers to this point in his Elements of Self-Criticism: ‘Now no-one can claim that we ever gave way to the crazy formalist idealism of the idea of producing the real by a combinatory of elements. Marx does speak of the “combination” of elements in the structure of a mode of production. But this combination [Verbindung] is not a formal “combinatory”: we expressly pointed that out. Purposely. In fact this is where the most important demarcation line is drawn.’ (Althusser 1976, p. 129.)
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57
Althusser and Balibar 1970, p. 20.
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58
Althusser 2003, p. 26.
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60
Althusser 2003, pp. 26–7.
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61
Althusser 2003, p. 30.
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63
Althusser 2003, p. 31. The same reference to the importance of thinking in terms of Spinoza’s singular essences can be seen in a 1966 letter to Franca Madonia: ‘What exist, in the strong sense of existing, are real objects (that I now call, retaking this concept from Spinoza, “singular essences”), knowledge of these real objects presupposes the intervention of the concepts of the general theory and the concepts of the related regional theories, plus the knowledge (empirical) of the determinate forms of existence that make the singularity of these essences’ (Althusser 1997a, p. 712).
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66
Montag 2013, pp. 73–6.
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67
Macherey 2006, p. 158. It is interesting to note that Macherey distinguishes Barthes’s attempt to think of structure in literary texts in terms of buried meaning from its use in linguistics ‘where it is justifiably applied’ (Macherey 2006, p. 158) or its use by Lévi-Strauss in the analysis of myths.
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68
Macherey 2006, p. 168.
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69
Macherey 2006, p. 172.
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74
Althusser 2014.
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76
Althusser 2014, p. 77.
-
77
Althusser 2014, p. 151.
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78
Althusser 1976, pp. 184–5.
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79
Balibar 1996, p. xiii.
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80
Lahtinen 2009, pp. 33–43.
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81
Althusser 1976, p. 187.
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85
Althusser 1999a, p. 103. On the importance of Machiavelli for Althusser, see Terray 1996 and Matheron 2012.
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86
Althusser 1999a, pp. 19–20.
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87
Althusser 1999a, p. 19.
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88
Althusser 2006, p. 43.
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89
Althusser 1998, p. 262.
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91
Goshgarian 2006.
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92
Althusser 2003, p. 296.
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93
Althusser 2006, p. 193.
-
94
Althusser 2006, p. 198.
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95
Althusser 2006, p. 187.
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96
Althusser 2006, p. 278.
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97
For such readings, see Negri 1996, Moulier Boutang 1997 and Ichida and Matheron 2005.
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99
Deleuze 2004a, p. 118.
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101
Montag 1998a; Montag 2003.
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102
Hardt and Negri 2009.
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103
Althusser 1976, p. 141. On the relation of Althusser to Spinoza see the detailed exposition by François Matheron (Matheron 2012).
-
104
Matheron 1988, p. 21.
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105
Macherey 2012, p. 176. See also Macherey’s commentary on Part ii of Spinoza’s Ethics in Macherey 1997.
-
106
Macherey 2012, p. 173.
-
107
Macherey 2012, p. 200.
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108
Balibar 1990b.
-
109
Macherey 2012, p. 178.
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110
Marx 1845.
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111
Macherey 2008, pp. 151–2.
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112
Hegel 2010, pp. 374–85.
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114
Balibar 1977.
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115
Balibar 1977, p. 21.
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116
Balibar 1977, pp. 43–4.
-
117
Balibar 1977, p. 46.
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118
Balibar 1977, pp. 49–50.
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119
Balibar 1992, p. 52.
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121
Balibar 1990a, p. 90.
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123
Althusser and Balibar 1970, p. 45.
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125
Poulantzas 1975, p. 98.
-
126
Poulantzas 2000, p. 151.
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127
Althusser and Balibar 1970, pp. 108–9.
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128
Althusser 1999b, p. 109.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1979 | 286 | 22 |
| Full Text Views | 435 | 36 | 10 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 432 | 82 | 13 |
Rethinking Structure and Conjuncture in Althusser
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Panagiotis Sotiris in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The relation between structure and conjuncture has been one of the biggest challenges facing social theory and Louis Althusser’s writings provide some of the most important interventions on this subject. Contrary to an image of Althusser first embracing and then abandoning structuralism, Althusser tried from the beginning to articulate the theory of structural causality with an insistence on the singularity of historical conjunctures. Althusser’s theoretical trajectory, despite his shortcomings, still offers a necessary starting point for a materialist conception of the relation between structural and conjunctural determinations that stresses the complex, uneven and overdetermined character of social reality without resorting either to a ‘surface phenomena/deep structures’ dualism or to the empiricism of simply registering singular practices.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1979 | 286 | 22 |
| Full Text Views | 435 | 36 | 10 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 432 | 82 | 13 |
