Louis Althusser and G. A. Cohen: a confrontation

Abstract

This article compares the work of two of the more important Marxists philosophers of the last decades: G. A. Cohen and Louis Althusser. To do so it develops a critique of some of Cohen’s thesis based on Althusser’s ideas. It also renders problematic certain presuppositions present in both authors, especially the notion that historical development (transition or revolution) must be explained in terms of a general theory of the non-correspondence between productive forces and production relations. The unique
difference between them would be the fact that Althusser assigns explicative primacy to the latter, while Cohen attributes it to the former. The theories of Cohen and Althusser concerning innovation and technological development are also compared in reference to the different role each one ascribes to human rationality and class struggle.