Marx And Louis Althusser Ideology Theory

Ideology is the outcome of social development. As a concept, the meaning of Ideology is complicated and inconstant ever since its emergence. Marx generalized a scientific theoretical system in his proletariat revolution based on predecessors'theoretical achievement. Marx developed a scientific ideology theory together with his materialist conception of history. French thinker, Althusser, as the representative personage of Marxism in 20th century, was famous for his structuralism perspective of Marx's ideology. With Marx's ideology theory as its theoretical origin, Althusser made classical interpretation on ideology state apparatus, the entity in ideology and the characteristic of ideology as social being. Especially, Althusser made a revolutionary development on ideology based on the inheritance of Marx Ideology. Study on Marx Ideology theory in Western countries saw an obvious turning point since Althusser's theory. However, Althusser ideology still remains within the scope of ideological criticism, and its limitations are apparent.This paper analyzed Althusser's inheritance and deviation from Marx from the mendacity of ideology, ideology state apparatus and its operation mechanism, ideology having no absolute independent history. This paper focused on the similarities and difference between Marx and Althusser ideology theory and the origin of difference from the perspective of reproduction of ideology. From the comparative study, we can identify the innovation of analytical method and some viewpoints of Althusser's theory on ideology. These innovations can be used to develop Marx ideology. Through the study of Althusser ideology, especially its development on Marx ideology, we aim to understand its essence of preventing Marxism, so as to direct ideology development in China.