Idea And Calling

1. The connotations and characters of the concept of ideology have undergone a lot of changes in its changing process. There are controdictions, divergences, and even oppositions in the understanding of different thinkers in different lingual context. It not only refers to an ideological science, but also belongs to the thinking system of the ruling class or to both the rulers as well as its subjects and also it is the ideological superstructure and the world outlook in general. It is positive, neutral and negative; it is active, progresssive and at the same time, conservative and even backword. From an epistemological point of view, ideology has its scientific trait and falsehood; from a sociological point of view, it serves the class through which it is formed and fulfilled the demond of its class. Understanding the envolutionary history of ideological conception will provide a profound theoretical resources and a deeper comprehension context for the study of Althusser's ideological theory.2. Althusser believes that there is an epistemological rupture in Marx's theory, which lies before The German Ideology. Before its rupture, Marxist theory belongs to the ideological questioning, but after it, it is a scientific one. Only through the symptomatic reading, can these questions which are divergent in nature and stored in deeper thinking emerge. In Althusser's point of view, ideology has its own peculiar logical and unique structural idea system. It is a subjective and unconscious structure; it is exisent eternally; and it has an imaginative quality and misrepresents and covers the true nature of the social historical process. Its basic function is to practice. Conversely, science changes the course of ideology and truly reflects the subjective reality and social historical process. Its basic function is theoretical. According to Althusser, science after the rupture includes double theoretical achievements: neo-science and neo-philosophy. In the interaction of the two factors, the formation of the later is surely induced by the former. Only through the "theoretical practice", can ideology be elevated to science. Reflecting upon Althusser's epistemological rupture theory, I believe the rupture does not exist if only from the perspective of the contradiction of science and humanity, because the Marxist theory concerns about man all-sidedly. On the other hand, a certain rupture does exist in Marx, because between Marx's former and later thinkings, there is an important change in theory-a transform in interpretation principle and theoretical standpoint. Marx's theory after the rupture is established on the basis of history, following the historical interpretation principle and is transfromed from the abstract to historical logic. Therefore, Marxist theory is the unification of rupture and non-rupture.3. Humanism is not a philosophical school, but a philosophical value system. Humanism, in western traditional philosophy, in most cases, is divorced from the historical condition and social relations, when observing man. They reduce humanity to a certain abstract thing, so they categorize man to a natural quality, or consider man as a rational existence. Some think man is "man per se" and regard this "abstract humanity" as the deciding power for social development and the measurement of the social process. In Althusser's mind, Marx,when in his childhood was dominated and influenced by the humanistic and ideological questioning of capitalism and his theory is mainly the theoretical humanism. Whereas Marx, when in his maturity, was theoratically against humanism and completely broke away from the humanistic capitalist ideology. And thus it is scientific.in his view, the scientific Marxist theory is constructed upon the historical theory and political theory, based on a new concept. Production relations are not relations between people. That is to say, in the process of production, it is the relations of production, not a man, play the principal parts. History is the process of non-subject. Although in Althusser's theory, some points which are contrary to humanism, is in a sense reasonable. However, he makes a mistake of saying something definitive in completely rejecting people.4. Althusser differentiates between state apparatus: suppressive state apparatus and ideological state one, which together ensure the re-production of production relations. In the light of ideological state apparatus, in the process of re-production of production relations, and in different historical period, the functioning form and machanism of various ideological state apparatus are not alike. In the feudal society, religious ideological state apparatus was dominant, whereas in the capitalist society, the leading ideological state apparatus is education. Althusser holds that ideology does not have any history, and it shows the imaginary relations between individual and his living conditions. Thus, it substanially exists and its function is to call the individual as subject. Here, in the interpretation of ideology, Althusser holds identical views with the ideological theory in his book For Marx written in 1965. At the same time, he further developes and deepens his thoughts in 1965. There are serious defects in Althusser's ideological theory in which he turns a blind eye to Marx's theory about man's dynamic role and completely gets rid of man's role as perceiver, and therefore he does not leave enough space for the anti-ideological fighting. In spite of this, his ideological theory has a great impact on many fields, such as post-structualism, political philosophy, literary citicism, British cultural studies and so on.5. There are gross misreadings of Marx's philosophy in Althussers' ideological theory, so it is necessory to evaluate Althusser in order to stress the the essentials of Marxism. (1)Althusser holds that Marxist philosophy is a pure science and anti-humanism. In my view, the original and true Marxism is not only scientific but also humanistic. And Marxist humanism is not the abstract, old-fasioned humanism in the traditional philosophy. It is built on the basis of historical science, which is both historic and realistic humanism. The mature Marxist philosopy is the unity of humanistic and scientific characters, and the unity of humanism and historic consciousness. That is to say, it is established on the basis of the historical science, and on the unity of humanism and historical reality. (2) Althussers thinks that society is constituted by economy, politics and ideology, which function primarily in the replacement of history. Althusser has misread Marx because Marx's hitorical outlook is the one that unifies the deciding factor and multiple factors which takes effect alternatively. (3) Althusser views that scicial history is a process without any subject, which has deviated from Marxism. In Marxism, social historical process is the intrinsic unity of historical objectivity and subjectivity. The historical objectivity is the one that subjects as its participants and subjectivity is the one that is restricted by historical objectivity. And the historical objectivity is decided by mutually functioning, gap-deciding and naturally deciding machanims. Subjectivity, in an ultimate sense, strikingly manifests the objective qualities including the converging objective traits.