Althusser and contemporary socialist theories: a critique of G. A. Cohen, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe

Submission note: In total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts to the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Legal Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora.

In this thesis I argue that the Marxist philosophy of Louis Althusser is still an important, innovative interpretation of Marxism that deserves to be taken seriously. Since the decline in the popularity of Althusserianism in the 1970s, alternative socialist theories have been developed, which are widely regarded as superior to Althusser’s theory. I argue that this view is mistaken, highlighting the advantages of Althusser’s approach, and critiquing the work of G.A. Cohen, Ernesto Laclau, and Chantal Mouffe, who put forward influential alternatives to Althusser’s theory. Although these alternative theories opened up interesting new areas of debate, they also have significant inadequacies. In particular, they fail to present an adequate account of the societal structure. These weaknesses are largely avoided by Althusser, who presents a more complex theory of the societal structure built around the notions of structural causality and overdetermination.