The Specter Of Spinoza:Althusser’s Detour Interpretation Of Marx

For a considerable period of time,the academic community regarded Althusser as a structuralist.But Althusser returned to Spinoza and explained Marxist thought from the perspectives of ideological criticism theory,dialectics and epistemology,and materialist historical views.Firstly,in terms of ideological criticism theory,Althusser associated the "epistemological rupture" with Spinoza’s first two types of knowledge classification,rejection of the concept of subjectivity and teleology,while reflecting on his own theoretical errors.In "On Reproduction," Althusser couples Spinoza’s first type of knowledge with "general ideology," using Spinoza’s criticism of religious ideology to enrich Marx’s theory of the state,and explaining how two types of state machines and material state machines work in conjunction with Spinoza’s mind-body relationships.Secondly,in the process of constructing the premise,structure,and standards for testing truth of scientific epistemology,Althusser reshaped Marx’s dialectics into "Overdetermination" by utilizing the inherent relationship between Spinoza’s entity and form,and corresponded the application of theoretical practice with Spinoza’s classification of knowledge;Furthermore,Spinoza’s projection of the distinction between cognitive objects and real objects,structural causality,and the belief that truth standards are inherent within itself,to the understanding of Capital,dealt a blow to empirical epistemology.Finally,in the 1980 s,Althusser transitioned from structuralism to the stage of aleatory materialism,using tools such as Spinoza and Machiavelli to reconstruct an unknown line of aleatory materialism,in opposition to Hegelian historical teleology.Thus,Althusser presented a path from theoretical philosophy to political philosophy,ultimately bidding farewell to Marxism.Althusser used Spinoza to interpret Marxist thought with the aim of opposing essentialism,empiricism,epistemology,and teleology.But,this borrowing of Spinoza triggered Althusser’s triple dilemma about his structuralist identity,misreading of Marxist historical theory,and complex attitude towards Hegel.His detour interpretation and the resulting Spinoza Revival movement,although expanding the political implications of Spinoza’s philosophy,went against the original intention of Spinoza’s philosophy and ignored the fact that the connection between Spinoza and Marx was limited to the establishment of a materialist view of history.Althusser did not become a Spinozist due to borrowing Spinoza’s philosophy at different times.Spinoza is just one of his intellectual resources.But it cannot be denied that Althusser opened up a new perspective to understand Marxist thought,revealing the suppressed theoretical relationship between Spinoza and Marx.