[Marxism] Re Reading Capital

[Scott Hamilton <shamresearch@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Althusser's claim that he had not read all of Capital in 'The Future Lasts A 
Long Time' is, like most of the claims in that book, quite false. Althusser's 
library survives, and there are copies of all of Marx and Hegel's works there 
covered in copious notations. We need to remember that Althusser was mentally 
ill when he wrote 'The Future...', and that the book contains plenty of 
patently ludicrous claims, like the one about his encounter with de Gaulle in a 
Paris street.

When he was ill Althusser sometimes wanted to destroy himself - he probably 
killed his wife in an effort to destroy his reputation, and his autobiography 
is certainly written partly out of a desire for self-destruction. Rather than 
taking the autobiography too seriously we should check out the English-language 
edition of the late philosophical writings which Verso Books has just published.

Cheers
Scott

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