Althusser Before Althusser: From Christianity to Communism

Abstract

Louis Althusser insisted that philosophical work has no destination. It is rather an enterprise without beginning or end, and therefore without a point at which a philosopher has to arrive, or without a goal to achieve. A philosopher is an individual who jumps on a moving train “without knowing where he comes from (origin) or where he is going (goal).” Through providing a “portrait of a materialist philosopher,” Althusser gave us the best description of his philosophical project. Althusser’s philosophical project is characterized by jumping from one train to another, thus leaving behind many stations and towns, most of which are rather unexplored or sometimes “superficially” wandered around. The abruptness of his jumping out of the train was determined by the political and theoretical of the time. The first station on which Althusser jumped was the station already shaped by the aftermath of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War.