Louis AlthusserThinkers

The Abstract is the domain of theoretic practice whereby the concrete refers largely to reality.

Causality is a theater without the author which reflects neither reality (empiricism) nor truth (hegelian dialectic). The object of study is the mechanism which produces the stage effects.

The Economic base is the base on which stands the superstructure (which is made up of the law (or the politico-legal state) and ideology.

An Epistemological break is the radical break with the whole pattern and frame of reference of a hegelian marx toward the historical materialism of his later work.

Family is an ideology tied inextricably with historical materialism. Any psychoanalysis must take this into account.

Historical materialism is marx's science of history which althusser claims that he founded after breaking with hegel and the idealist-empiricist philosophical tradition.

Humanism is a (flawed) ideology that suggests there is a universal essence of man. Humanism gives rise to the concept of man (or human nature, or the human subject) as an unproblematic and stable center. The idea of man must be abolished.

Humanism is an expression of reactionary socialism.

The Ideological state apparatus is the complex of institutions such as education system, family, mass media, religious organizations, through which subjects are made and the sate ideology is pushed forward.

Interpretation is the power of state apparatuses (i.e. Churches, universities, political parties, and trade unions) to constitute subjects which in turn submit to its needs.