Biography of Louis Althusser

Louis Althusser is a French Communist philosopher who reinterpretted the doctrines of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

The philosopher spent his early years working with the Roman Catholic youth organization before being captured in 1940 and spending the remander of WWII in a concentration camp. He then joined the Communist Party in 1948 and became well known as a theorist of ideology.

Althusser's best-known essay, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes Toward an Investigation, established the concept of ideology. The essay discusses several concepts such as hailing and interpellation.

In 1948 Althusser took a degree in philosophy at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. He then taught there for the next 32 years until in 1980 he strangled his wife.

Althusser was then confined in mental institutions until his death in 1990.

Also check out Louis Althusser quotes