A Study Of Althusser's Political Philosophy

The object of this paper is to study Althusser's political philosophy, including its contents, characters, effect and limits, by analyzing his text of reading the classic texts of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Machiavelli and Marx, etc. The main subject of Althusser's political philosophy is the theoretical and political practice of the proletariat and its Party, which had never been changed. However, Althusserian scholars always avoid defining his political philosophy in theoretical level. They used to adopt the term "Althusser's political philosophy", or equal it with his theory of ideology. The author aims to define the concept from three levels—knowledge, valuation and practice, and then introduces the object and method of study of the text in the Introduction part.In the first chapter, the author introduces Althusser's Study of Montesquieu's thought by analyzing the Spirit of Law firstly. Althusser states that Montesquieu realizes an epistemological break with all political philosophies and opens political science, which lies in the revolution of theory of law and history. Meanwhile he applies class analytical method to discover the standpoint of the feudal class in Montesquieu's doctrines of government and the separation of power. The more important effect is that he discloses the internal relation of Montesquieu's theoretical revolution to his political practice and the coexistence of political science and ideology. Althusser destroys the classic image of Montesquieu——the revolution fighter and enlightenment thinker of the bourgeoisie, which affords a mode of studying those classic texts of the transitional phase. The sense of Althusser's study of Montesquieu also lies in his definition of nature of absolutism monarchy according to its infrastructure and class structure, and of the epistemological origin of its illusion. The author thinks that Althusser has formed and used theoretical anti-humanism and scientific epistemology actually, which is theorized in the following study of Marx.In the second chapter, the author introduces Althusser's study of Rousseau firstly. According to his theoretical anti-humanism, Althusser applies the symptom reading to the Social contract. He analyzes the mirror structure between the legal contract and social contract, discloses the link of displaces in the concept of social contract, define the problematic of human of Rousseau's theory of contract, and points out its limits in theory and practice. Then the author states the internal relation of this study to his mature thoughts and his critical attitude to all the traditional political philosophy and analyzes the progress and limits of his anti-humanism. The author points out that Althusser defines the nature and limits of Rousseau's theory of contract and the internal relation between Rousseau, Kant and Hegel correctly, but he cannot affirm the theoretical and practical senses of them fully and correctly because of his theoretical standpoint of anti-humanism.In the third chapter, the author tells us that Athusser raises and resolved "the riddle of Machiavelli", which displays the politics of Machiavelli's text, i.e. the dialectical unity between theoretical practice and political practice, and opens a particular typology of the political theory. By analyzing Machiavelli's definition of the new princess's political practice, Althusser defines a kind of special political ideology—popular ideology, its function, nature and effect, and discloses its internal relation to the reproduction of political power, which develops his doctrine of ideological state apparatuses. Althusser affords us a philosophy of proletariats' revolution and socialism transition by the image of the new princess, which maybe lead us to reform Machiavelli from the standpoint of the modern proletariat.It is Althusser's definitive topic that the theory and practice of the proletariat and its Party. He remains thinking the problem of social transition all along in his theoretical practice, which begins in his study of Montesquieu in 1950s, lies in his mature phase as an apparent element, and remains as the object of his late study. In 1960s Althusser constructs his special concept of cause-effect, i.e. structure in dominance, which is used to explain the dynamic of history, to describe the structural characters of social transition, to oppose economism and fatalism, humanism and voluntarism, and to destroy the theoretical supposition of historicism. Since 1970s Althusser is illuminated by Machiavelli and Epicurus and begins to build the viewpoint of "man in action". In the context of Althusser, "the man in action" is not the new princess, but the Communism Party of the proletariat. Athusser remains thinking about Marxism political practice deeply and originally in his flowing discourse all along, and build his special political philosophy.It is not difficult to discover that there are some discrepancy and break, such as humanism and anti-humanism, historicism and anti-historicism, the science and ideology of Marxism in his thoughts objectively. He conceals them carefully, recognizes them or tends to another end. The general characters of Althusser's political philosophy lie in:1) praise scientific ration, but belittle valuation ration; 2) uplift criteria of utility, but depreciate criteria of valuation; 3) emphasize positivism analysis, and despise the system design. Late Althusser deconstructs his theory and Marx's in face of the challenge of real situations, but he has no ability and interest to rebuild it again then. In the view of the author, we should pay attention to the problem which Althusser has not focused on or resolved, such as the basic idea of Marxism political philosophy, the system construction of socialism state power, the political practice of western Communism Party in state affairs, violent revolution and democratic transition, social transformation, and the dismiss of the traditional proletariat, and so on. Some elements of Althusserian political philosophy maybe is helpful for us to resolve these problems in theory and practice.