RE: [OPE] Francis Wheen, "Kapital crimes"

gerald_a_levy@msn.com

> I don't know the context, but even if accurate enough as to the wording in > its context, it is still not accurate. For Althuser, true READING was > truly a project of a lifetime (or so I understand him).

Hi Paul Z;

In _The Future Lasts Forever_ he wrote that after the publication of 
_Pour Marx_  and _Lire le 'Capital'_

         "I became obsessed with the terrifying thought that these
          texts  would expose me completely to the public at large 
          as I really was, namely a trickster and deceiver and nothing
          more, a philosopher who knew nothing about the history of 
          philosophy or about Marx."

I'm not sure how we should interpret this, but I don't think that the
answer you suggest above is sufficient.  Neither do I think that his 
"confessions" should be interpreted literally since at the time he wrote
his memoir he was clearly a very  emotionally disturbed and tormented 
individual. In other words, his "confessions"  might reflect his mental 
state at the time and therefore  represent a twisted remembrance of 
his own life story and contributions.   If you read what he wrote literally,
it just doesn't make sense - how could someone "who knew nothing about
the history of philosophy" write a dissertation on Hegel?

While not an Althusserian myself, I think there was something perverted
in the way much of the non-Althusserian Left reacted to the stories 
about the latter stages of his life. It was almost like many of them were gleeful
upon hearing the news.  That was kind of sick, imo: why should Marxists
celebrate - even if that person has a different theoretical and political
perspective - the personal tragedy of another Marxist?  This type of 
viciousness needs to be put behind us.

In solidarity, Jerry

 > > Even Althusser himself, who> > produced a book on the subject, eventually confessed in his memoirs that> > he was a "trickster and deceiver" who had read no more than> > "a few passages of Marx."

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