THE CONCEPT OF “EPISTEMOLOGICAL BREAK” IN LOUIS ALTHUSSER’S WORKS

Abstract

Louis Althusser is an eminent French Marxist philosopher of the twentieth century, whose work is widely spread in the world and has caused various interpretations, and has a strong influence on subsequent thinkers. This paper deals with the concept of “epistemological break”, which was iontroduced by Althusser to determine the contribution of Karl Marx’s theory of social determinism. Althusser emphasized that Marx founded a new science – historical materialism, which, in its essence, is the benchmark for all other social sciences. The paper examines the stages of Althusser’s ideological evolution regarding Marx’s concept of historical materialism; the author analyzes the French philosopher’s reaction to the criticism of his position by other Marxists, for example, John Lewis, as well as present an attempt to demonstrate the main conclusions of L. Althusser, to which he comes at the end of his research.

Keywords

• "epistemological break”, historical materialism, ideology, dialectics, economic field