Louis Althusser's essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)," delves into the complex relationship between the state and various societal institutions. Althusser introduces the concept of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) alongside the well-known Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) to explore how the state functions beyond mere repression.
Althusser begins by emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between State power and State apparatus. While the RSA includes entities like the Government, Army, and Police, functioning through repression and violence, Althusser introduces the concept of ISAs as distinct from the RSA. He proposes an empirical list of ISAs, including religious institutions, educational systems, family structures, legal frameworks, political systems, trade unions, communication mediums (press, radio, television), and cultural spheres (literature, arts, sports).
Crucially, Althusser argues that ISAs should not be confused with RSAs. The difference lies in their primary mode of operation: RSAs predominantly function through violence, while ISAs operate predominantly through ideology. However, Althusser acknowledges that both types of State Apparatuses incorporate elements of both violence and ideology.
One key distinction he makes is that RSAs function massively and predominantly through repression, with ideology playing a secondary role. For instance, the Army and Police use violence to maintain order but also rely on shared values for internal cohesion. Conversely, ISAs predominantly function through ideology, shaping beliefs and values, but they may employ repression secondarily, though in a more concealed and symbolic manner. For example, schools and churches may use punishment and expulsion to maintain discipline among students or followers.
Althusser challenges the conventional public-private dichotomy by asserting that the public and private distinction is internal to bourgeois law and not applicable to the state's domain. The State, being the State of the ruling class, transcends this distinction and is the precondition for any separation between public and private. Consequently, whether an institution is public or private is less relevant than how it functions within the context of ISAs.
In essence, Althusser contends that ISAs contribute to the reproduction and cohesion of the state through ideological means, influencing individuals' beliefs and values. These apparatuses play a crucial role in shaping the collective consciousness of society, with their influence extending beyond the public realm into private institutions like families, churches, and cultural ventures.
Althusser's framework provides a nuanced understanding of how the state operates beyond visible structures of power, highlighting the intricate interplay between ideology and repression. By recognizing the dual nature of both RSAs and ISAs, Althusser challenges simplistic views of state power and encourages a more comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms through which societies are shaped and maintained.
In this continuation of Louis Althusser's essay, he further explores the intricate relationship between ideology and material practices within the context of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs). Althusser introduces the concept that both Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs) and ISAs "function" by both repression and ideology but with different emphases.
Althusser emphasizes that the dual functioning of RSAs and ISAs—predominantly by repression and predominantly by ideology, respectively—creates subtle and complex combinations in their interplay. He suggests that everyday life is replete with examples of how these apparatuses interact, and a more detailed examination is needed to understand the nuances of this interplay.
One key point Althusser makes is that the unity of seemingly diverse ISAs lies in their common functioning through ideology. Despite the diversity and contradictions within various ISAs, they are unified beneath the ruling ideology, which belongs to the ruling class. Althusser argues that the ruling class not only holds State power through RSAs but is also active in ISAs, shaping the ruling ideology that permeates these apparatuses. He cites Lenin's efforts to revolutionize the educational ISA in the Soviet Union as an example of the ruling class actively participating in the ideological realm to secure the future of their class interests.
Moreover, Althusser posits that ISAs are not only the stakes but also the sites of class struggle. Unlike RSAs, where the ruling class can more easily lay down the law, ISAs face resistance from the exploited classes. The struggle manifests either through the exploited classes utilizing contradictions within ISAs or by gaining combat positions in these apparatuses through active struggle.
Althusser then delves into the material existence of ideology in ISAs. He argues that ideologies exist in apparatuses and their practices in a material sense, though not in the same modality as physical objects. Ideologies are materialized in the practices and rituals of individuals within ISAs. These practices vary depending on the specific ideology, whether religious, ethical, legal, or political. Althusser highlights the relationship between the imaginary distortion of individuals' beliefs and their imaginary relation to their conditions of existence, ultimately rooted in the relations of production and class relations.
The essay then ephasizes that individuals, driven by their beliefs, inscribe their ideas into their material practices within ISAs. The ideological representation of ideology recognizes that individuals must act according to their ideas and beliefs, and deviation from these actions is considered "wicked." The essay thus establishes a framework for understanding how ideology, belief systems, and material practices intersect within the complex web of Ideological State Apparatuses.
Althusser delves deeper into the relationship between ideology and actions, highlighting the material existence of ideas within practices governed by rituals. He begins by emphasizing that the ideology of ideology recognizes that a human subject's ideas manifest in their actions or should ideally do so. This recognition becomes crucial as Althusser shifts the focus from ideas to actions inserted into practices, which are guided by rituals within ideological apparatuses.
Althusser draws inspiration from Pascal's dialectic, proposing an inversion of the notional schema of ideology. Pascal's formula, "Kneel down, move your lips in prayer, and you will believe," suggests that performing actions can shape beliefs. This inversion challenges the conventional order of ideological analysis and introduces a Marxist vocabulary to navigate these unexplored domains.
Althusser contends that, concerning an individual, the existence of their belief is material, manifested in their actions within practices governed by rituals. These rituals, in turn, are defined by the material ideological apparatus from which the subject derives their ideas. The materiality of actions like going to mass, kneeling, making the sign of the cross, and engaging in various rituals contributes to the embodiment of ideology in the individual's practices.
While acknowledging different modalities of materiality, Althusser reshuffles certain terms in his analysis. The term "ideas" disappears as an independent category, while "subject," "consciousness," "belief," "actions," "practices," "rituals," and "ideological apparatus" persist or emerge.
Crucially, Althusser retains the notion of the subject, which he deems decisive for understanding the interplay between ideology and actions. He then introduces two conjoint theses: there is no practice except by and in an ideology, and there is no ideology except by the subject and for subjects. These theses underscore the interdependence of ideology and practices, emphasizing that ideologies exist for and through human subjects.
Building on these theses, Althusser leads to his central thesis, which remains to be explicitly stated. However, the groundwork has been laid, highlighting the centrality of the subject in the dynamics of ideology and practices. The materiality of actions within rituals, guided by ideological apparatuses, underscores the tangible nature of ideological existence. This sets the stage for Althusser's further exploration of the subject's role in the complex web of ideology and practices.
Ideology Interpellates Individuals as Subjects
Althusser expands on the idea that ideology interpellates individuals as subjects. The central thesis is that there is no ideology except by the subject and for subjects, emphasizing the constitutive role of the category of the subject in all forms of ideology.
Althusser asserts that the category of the subject, while explicitly named with the rise of bourgeois ideology, is intrinsic to all ideologies, irrespective of their regional, class, or historical determinations. This category becomes crucial for understanding ideology's functioning, which, according to Althusser, is in the material forms of existence of that functioning.
The recognition that individuals are subjects is foundational to ideological effects. Althusser contends that individuals live spontaneously or naturally in ideology, illustrating this by stating that "man is an ideological animal by nature." The obviousness that individuals are subjects is an ideological effect, where ideology imposes certain obviousnesses as unquestionable truths.
Althusser draws attention to the ritualistic nature of ideological recognition, using examples like the handshake, calling someone by their name, or recognizing a friend on the street. These rituals solidify the consciousness of being subjects and guarantee that individuals are concrete, distinguishable, and irreplaceable.
However, Althusser argues that this recognition only provides consciousness of ideological recognition, not scientific knowledge of the mechanism behind it. The knowledge he aims to reach involves breaking with ideology from within, creating the foundation for a subject-less discourse on ideology.
He introduces a unique mode of exposition, concrete enough to be recognized yet abstract enough to be thinkable and thought. Althusser formulates a primary proposition: all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects through the functioning of the category of the subject.
In the theoretical scene he envisions, a hailed individual turns around, acknowledging the hail as directed at them. This simple physical act transforms the individual into a subject because they recognize the hail was meant for them. Althusser likens this to the commonplace police hailing of "Hey, you there!" that results in the individual turning around and becoming a subject through recognition.
The existence of ideology and the interpellation of individuals as subjects are thus simultaneous. Ideology "acts" by recruiting or transforming individuals into subjects through interpellation. Althusser plays with the idea of a temporal sequence, presenting it as a before and an after, to illustrate the process. However, he emphasizes that in reality, the existence of ideology and interpellation occur simultaneously.
Moreover, Althusser challenges the common belief that ideology operates outside itself, asserting that what appears to take place outside ideology actually happens within it. The denegation of ideology's ideological character is an effect of ideology itself. People in ideology often deny being in ideology, as ideology never explicitly admits its own ideological nature. This self-denial is a distinctive characteristic of ideology.
Althusser concludes by stating that individuals are always-already subjects, emphasizing the eternal nature of ideology. The temporal form is suppressed, making it clear that individuals are perpetually interpellated by ideology as subjects. This notion leads to the final proposition: individuals are always-already subjects, and they are abstract with respect to the subjects that they perpetually are within the ideological framework.
#LouisAlthusser #IdeologyandIdeologicalStateApparatuses(NotestowardsanInvestigation) #IdeologyandIdeologicalStateApparatusesbyLouisAlthusser #IdeologyandIdeologicalStateApparatusesbyLouisAlthussersummary #IdeologyandIdeologicalStateApparatusesbyLouisAlthusseranalysis #culturaltheory #IdeologicalStateApparatuses #RepressiveStateApparatus #IdeologicalStateApparatusesLouisAlthusser #RepressiveStateApparatusLouisAlthusser #conceptofIdeologicalStateApparatusesbyLouisAlthusser #conceptofRepressiveStateApparatusLouisAlthusser #Conceptofinterpellation #ConceptofinterpellationLouisAlthusser #althusser'stheoryofinterpellation #differencebetweenhegemonyandinterpellation #althusser'sIdeologyandIdeologicalStateApparatuses(NotestowardsanInvestigation) #althusser'sIdeologyandIdeologicalStateApparatuses #althusser'stheoryofIdeologicalStateApparatuses #althusser'stheoryofRepressiveStateApparatus #interpellation #ideologybyLouisAlthusser #mainideaofIdeologyandIdeologicalStateApparatuses #IdeologyandIdeologicalStateApparatuses #fuctionofeducationasanideologicalstateapparatuses #functionofrepressivestateapparatusses #isasandrasas #functionsofideology #conceptofisas #conceptofrsas #althussersconceptofisas #althussersconceptofrsas
Louis Althusser's essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" : Summary & Explanation
Louis Althusser's essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" : Summary & Explanation
Louis Althusser's essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" : Summary & Explanation
Louis Althusser's essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" : Summary & Explanation
Louis Althusser's essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" : Summary & Explanation
Louis Althusser's essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" : Summary & Explanation
Louis Althusser's essay, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" : Summary & Explanation
0 Comments