Philosophy for Non-Philosophers

In 1980, at the end of the most intensely political period of his work and life, Louis Althusser penned Philosophy for Non-philosophers. Available here for the first time in English, Philosophy for Non-philosophers constitutes a rigorous and engaged attempt to address a wide reading public unfamiliar with Althussers project. As such, the work is a concentration of the most fundamental theses of Althussers own ideas, and presents a synthesis of his sprawling and disparate philosophical and political writings. Nowhere else does Althusser push the distinction between philosophy and other disciplines as far, or develop in such detail the concept of practice. Rather than a work of popular philosophy, Philosophy for Non-philosophers is a continuation and conglomeration of Althussers thought; a thought whose radicality is still perceptible in those that have followed since. Philosophy for Non-philosophers thus provides a vivid encapsulation of Althussers seminal influence on the leading thinkers of today, including Ranciere, Badiou, Balibar, and iek.