---
product_id: 25850717
title: "Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays"
brand: "louis althusser"
price: "$1060"
currency: MXN
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.mx/products/25850717-lenin-and-philosophy-and-other-essays
store_origin: MX
region: Mexico
---

# Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays

**Brand:** louis althusser
**Price:** $1060
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays by louis althusser
- **How much does it cost?** $1060 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.mx](https://www.desertcart.mx/products/25850717-lenin-and-philosophy-and-other-essays)

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## Description

Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    e a new method of practice and reading things with what he called a proletarian class position) are very easy and fun to read if
  

*by N***S on Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2016*

This is my first time reading Althusser, I'll admit. I must say he's a very interesting author to read and writes in a really eloquent way (albeit not all the time in clear language). The essay "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" is, if you're not familiar with a few concepts (specifically Lacan and the mirror stage, which becomes very prevalent towards the end of it), a very difficult read, in my opinion. I had quite a bit of trouble grasping the very near end of it due to this. However, it is very rewarding to read Althusser, despite how complex he may get sometimes.Moving on, his essays on the philosophy of Lenin and what Lenin contributed to Marxism (i.e a new method of practice and reading things with what he called a proletarian class position) are very easy and fun to read if you're familiar at all with materialist dialectics and some intricacies of early Bolshevik literary history and history in general, as well as certain things regarding Hegel.I recommend this to anyone interested in Marxism, social science in general really. It's a shame that Althusser didn't write more (or rather, his works are predominantly French and have to be translated), because he's a very entertaining author.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Five Stars
  

*by C***T on Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2016*

Excellent reading.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    review
  

*by C***B on Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2013*

Caveat, I'm only rating the essay on ideology in this book, which is also the most famous essay in the text. I'll get to that in a moment.Although I read the preface, by Fredric Jameson, and an interview of Althusser, and an essay on Lenin, I skipped all the other essays. As usual in the interview and the essay on Lenin, everything I read was insane and philosophically ridiculous. Althusser is almost always a charlatan. Like in For Marx, Althusser begins all his essays the same way: "I'm only going to a sketch some provisional theses; this is not to be taken as a definite position." From there he continues to lay out more hypotheticals, each of which is in need of further exploration "later." Therefore, he acts as his own scapegoat by never sticking to a position, he's always working provisionally, and thus always capable of rejecting what he said, as soon as it's pointed out as untenable, or ridiculous. I think For Marx is a mostly atrocious book, and everything else I've read by him, except the ideology essay is equally snake oil and/or untenable. Not to mention - as Kolakowski pointed out about Althusser and Nussbaum about Butler - numerous neologisims are employed, and an idiosyncratic writing style is utilized, to say very commonplace things. Even when Althusser isn't being his own scapegoat, his general writing style is nauseating. He fills his essays with fragmentary sentences and rhetorical questions directed at himself and the reader...Digressing...That said, I now see why this ONE essay is so famous. Although it too is a "sketch," it definitely advances the theory of ideology in a materialist direction, and ACTUALLY provides working hypothesis and theses that ought to be further developed (I believe Pierre Bourdieu did this, among others).Althusser wants to ask the basic Marxian question: how does society reproduce itself everyday through production? The means of production and the forces of production are already well explained by Marx, but what about the social relations of production? For this question a long exposition of the ideological state apparatus (ISA) is explored. The ISA is distinct from the state apparatus (SA), which is mostly based on force and coercion. The ISA refers to institutions like the media, the school, radio broad casting, etc. One might wonder why the ISA is even called a state then. Well, Atlhusser points out that private-public property is a rather bogus distinction, one which the bourgeois employ to justify their private property, which of course impacts the public 'privately' and 'publicly'. If a media outlet is private or public, or a school private or public, they still serve the function of reproducing the social relations around the means of production via ideology.In feudal societies the church was the primary institution for reproducing the social relations of production, but under 20th (and 21st) century capitalism, it is now the school. By the time one graduates from high-school, they are convinced that the social relations under capitalism are perfectly normal and okay.Althusser moves on to develop a unique theory of ideology and the subject. When one recognizes themselves as a subject, or is "called into" awareness of their subjectivity, this is called hailing, or interpellation. If one is walking down the street and hears a cop shout "hey you!" they become aware of their role as a subject. The general ideological structure of the ISA makes people aware of their roles as subject in such a way that they continue to reproduce social relations under capitalism.There's more to be said and the essay isn't too long (40 pages). Despite the usual garbage Althusser espouses, this one is worth reading. As a result I MAY purchase Reading Capital...or Gregory Elliott's book on Althusser. Just as Liberals feel they MUST mention Rawls in any theories, articles, essays, etc., they write, Marxists feel inclined to mention Althusser. For this essay alone, he does warrant a place in philosophical discourse, albeit For Marx warrants him a place the dustbin of history.

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*Product available on Desertcart Mexico*
*Store origin: MX*
*Last updated: 2026-01-30*