On E.P.Thompson's Critique On Althusser

Edward Palmer Thompson is a famous British historian,the representative of British Marxism,and also the founder of the First New Left in Britain.Louis Althusser is a famous French Marxist philosopher,the representative of "Structuralist Marxism",and also the figure advocated by the Second New Left in Britain.It is precisely the relative thought of Althusser's "Structuralist Marxism" that led to the collective transformation of the Second New Left in Britain,which incurred Thompson's strong critique.This critique focuses on the article,"The Poverty of Theory or An Orrery of Errors",which is included in The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays,and in the late1970 s and early 1980 s this critique aroused high attention and controversy within the British New Left.In short,there are two essence of Thompson's critique on Althusser:Firstly,by criticizing Althusser,Thompson strongly opposes the Second British New Left represented by Anderson to attempting to develop the Marxist theory through continental theory;Secondly,Thompson illuminates his own opinion that it is necessary to uphold and develop the British Marxism based on the local tradition in Britain.This paper mainly consists of two parts: the main body which contains four chapters and the conclusion:The first chapter mainly focuses on the micro and macro background of Thompson's critique on Althusser,the thought development process of Thompson and Althusser,and overall atmosphere and question consciousness within British Marxism.Under the background of Western Marxist Humanism and French Structuralism in vogue,Althusser put forward some ideas: Marxism is " An Anti-Humanism in Theory";"History is a Process without Subject";"Anti historicism " and other thoughts.The academic influence brought by Althusser's theory is the formation of a Structuralist Marxist School,a strong critique on Humanist Marxism,the structuralist transformation of the Second New Left in Britain and a certain enlightenment to post-Structuralism andpost-Marxism.Thompson's thought mainly includes three development periods: the early period of worshiping William Morris,the turning period of systematic critique on Stalinism,and finally the golden period of putting forward the working class' s formation theory and critique on the "Structuralist Marxism".Thompson's critique on Althusser not only embodies their thoughts' evolution within the micro background,but also is influenced by the macro background of overall atmosphere and question consciousness within British Marxism,including the tradition of empirical application of historical materialism,the inheritance of British empirical philosophy and the strong sense of socialist civilian tradition.The second chapter mainly expounds Thompson's critique on Althusser from the epistemological point of view,which mainly deals with these questions that Thompson criticizes that Althusser has fallen into idealism and turned to theoretical solipsism.How does knowledge produce? How does the real world enter the field of knowledge? What is the "Epistemological Rupture" in the Marxist tradition? In the face of Althusser's unique exposition of these problems,Thompson in the "The Poverty of Theory or An Orrery of Errors" puts forward the targeted criticism,and its specific content includes that Thompson criticizes that Althusser's epistemology lacks of legitimacy,that Althusser ignores the "real world" and criticizes Althusser's "Epistemological Rupture".Facing that Althusser and his followers attack on historical materialism,Thompson argues that this attack not only undermines the institutional structure of the constructive theoretical dialogue in Left,but also results in a continuous division between theory and practice.So Thompson criticizes that Althusser has fallen into theoretical idealism,that Althusser has inability to deal with "experience" itself,and that Althusser has confused the dialogue of experience and empiricism.Since Althusser has a seriously theoretical tendency in terms of understanding the relationship between knowledge and reality,Thompson mainly criticizes that Althusser has turned to theoretical solipsism,that Althusser denies the identity of object and knowledge,and criticizes Althusser's "Theoretical Practice".The third chapter mainly elaborates Thompson's critique on Althusser from the angle of "Historical Science",which mainly deals with these questions about Thompson's critique on Althusser's negation of historicism and admiration of structuralism.In Schaff's view,the study of historicism contributes to Althusser's attitude toward structuralism and Marxism.For the same point of view,Thompson's critique on Althusser's historical ontology mainly revolves around Althusser's attitudeand view of "Historicism",thus Thompson criticizes that Althusser attacks on historicism,that Althusser ignores historical interpretation and that Althusser weakens the subjective initiative.After expounding Thompson's critique on Althusser's historicism from a whole perspective,Thompson goes deep into Althusser's thought,and Thompson criticizes further around Althusser's three specific historical perspectives,namely,“Relative Autonomy of History”,structuralist tendencies in the construction of historical theory,and the “Class Struggle is the Motor of History”.From the perspective of historical methodology,“Structuralist Marxism” advocated by Althusser naturally takes repellent and repulsive attitude toward historicism,thus Althusser can not see the dialogue between evidence and concepts,his historical view does not have historical logic,and the structuralist methodology he advocates is more of a synchronic methodology.Thompson puts forward three critical critique on Althusser's historical methodology: criticizing that Althusser lacks of "dialogue with evidence",criticizing Althusser's rejection to historical logic,and criticizing Althusser's synchronic methodology.The fourth chapter mainly discusses Thompson 's theory construction from three aspects in the process of criticizing Althusser.The main solution is Thompson's "Cultural Materialism","Historicism" and "Socialist Humanism".From Thompson's critique on Althusser,we can see the shadow of Thompson's "Cultural Materialism".Although the definition of "Cultural Materialism" was first proposed by Raymond Williams,here the view has been modified and extended by Thompson.Thompson's construction of this view can be summed up as the following three points,namely,reinspecting the concept of culture,revising the relationship between the economic base and superstructure,and exploring the Marxist tradition.From the 19 th century,the related research within natural and social science began to adopt the method of historicism.As a historian,Thompson not only inherits the British empiricism tradition,but also takes advantage of the method of historicism throughout his historical research.Thus in the process of criticizing Althusser,Thompson also implies his own "Historicism" view,that is,paying more attention to diachronic instead of synchronic,paying more attention to historical facts instead of historical experience and paying more attention to experience instead of theory.Not only in the theoretical study does Thompson consciously make use of views and methods of historical materialism,but also he focuses on the development and progress of contemporary socialist movement.Thompson even directly involved in the real political struggles and had sympathy forthe lower people,so he adhered to the critical dimension of "history from below".It is from the analysis of the British lower people that Thompson put forward "Socialist Humanism",which at the same time is also one of the theories which Thompson tried to build when criticizing Althusser.It is mainly embodied in the following three points:abandoning the theorization of Althusserism's ideology,emphasizing the historical subject and the morality of "Socialist Humanism".The conclusion mainly analyzes the theory constructed by Thompson's critique on Althusser,which not only gives us some enlightenment and thought on how to dialectically view the relationship between experience and theory,between historicism and structuralism,but also provides some references on how to persist and develop historical materialism.These enlightenment and references mainly include the proper use of empiricism,not the ignorance of theoretical construction;the confirmation of subjectivity with historicism,not the negation of structuralism;the persistence and development of historical materialism based on the localization.