Structural Marxism

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Structural Marxism (or structuralist Marxism) is an approach to Marxism based on structuralism, primarily associated with the work of the French philosopher Louis Althusser and his students. It was influential in France during the late 1960s and 1970s, and also came to influence philosophers, political theorists and sociologists outside France during the 1970s. Structural Marxism arose in opposition to the humanist Marxism that dominated many universities in the West during the 1950s and 60s. In contrast to the humanist focus on the early works of Karl Marx, structural Marxism emphasizes the later, more structural works, such as Das Kapital, which Althusser argued represented a scientific break from Marx's earlier Hegelian humanism. Because Althusser's thought was deeply rooted in the history of the French Communist Party (PCF), structural Marxism is often considered a politically-motivated theoretical intervention. Althusser's aim was to reconcile Marxism with the structuralist sciences...

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