This article seeks to locate Louis Althusser’s late preoccupation with the status of Marxists in philosophy through a survey of archival and marginal texts written on and amid struggles within the French education system. This material evidences that Althusser held a long-term ambition to reconcile the demands of being a Marxist in his professional life with the demands of being a philosopher in his political life. On this basis, this article offers an expanded contextualisation of the stakes that weighed upon Althusser’s shifting understanding and inhabitation of a Marxist position in philosophy. It aims to show that Althusser’s involvement with, and changing attitudes towards, the educational institution (and in particular the teaching of philosophy) played a significant role in forging the discontinuities in his conceptualisation of Marxist philosophy. The article additionally traces the afterlife of this practice in the work of Jacques Derrida and the Groupe de recherches sur l’enseignement de a philosophe (GREPH).
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ALT2.A11-03.01 to 13/04.01 to 09/05.01 to 10 Groupe Spinoza (1967–1969).
ALT2.A14.01.08 Sur les ‘Grandes illusions de l’École’ Texte de L.A. [Automne–hiver?] 1968.
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ALT2. A49-01.07 Enquête interne au P.C.F. sur l’enseignement de la philosophie.
ALT2.E2-03.04 Comptes-rendues divers. Projets de Programmes concernant la réforme du concours d’entrée à l’E.N.S. dans le cadre de la réforme Haby.
ALT2.E2-03.05 Documentation sur la réforme Haby.
ALT19.03.28.06 Resolution de la cellule Paul Langevin (École normale supérieure Ulm). 14 juin 1972.
This article seeks to locate Louis Althusser’s late preoccupation with the status of Marxists in philosophy through a survey of archival and marginal texts written on and amid struggles within the French education system. This material evidences that Althusser held a long-term ambition to reconcile the demands of being a Marxist in his professional life with the demands of being a philosopher in his political life. On this basis, this article offers an expanded contextualisation of the stakes that weighed upon Althusser’s shifting understanding and inhabitation of a Marxist position in philosophy. It aims to show that Althusser’s involvement with, and changing attitudes towards, the educational institution (and in particular the teaching of philosophy) played a significant role in forging the discontinuities in his conceptualisation of Marxist philosophy. The article additionally traces the afterlife of this practice in the work of Jacques Derrida and the Groupe de recherches sur l’enseignement de a philosophe (GREPH).
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