Pour Marx e Lire le Capital: Convergences and divergences

Abstract

This paper aims to make a comparative analysis of these two pioneering works of Althusser in which he shed new light on issues concerning the Marxist theory giving an innovative reading marked by radicalism not only theoretical, but also political. Thus, I will specify in this article both similar and convergent aspects of these two works in relation to the criticism of theoretical humanism, but also their differences. This distinction is marked between the concepts of contradiction and over-determination present in Pour Marx and structural causality, this striking concept, in Lire le Capital. I assume that the concept of contradiction is fundamental to the understanding of the political context of the crisis, particularly in revolutionary moments, while the structural causality, by extracting the role of contradiction, has a formal character which Althusser will rectify in later works.