Ideology and therapeutic analysis of language

KARCZMARCZYK, PEDRO

Turku

Conferencia; Research Seminar in Philosophy; 2010

Department of Philosophy, University of Turku, Turku, Finladia.

In this paper, we will try to draw a comparison between Althusser?s perspectives on ideology as he sets them out in his Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses1 and the approach to language that emerges from Wittgenstein?s Philosophical Investigations.2 In particular, we will show that there is a deep parallelism between Althusser?s view on the constitution of individuals as subjects in ideology through ?the working of the category of subject? and Wittgenstein?s ideas concerning the constitution of speakers through the category of meaning. By doing so, we expect to enable a dialogue between both views. In this paper, we will highlight the structure that makes this comparison possible and the different ways in which it is illuminating on both sides. This will help us see weak points, develop some others and become aware of some of the unexpected implications of both positions. In addition, this analogy can reinforce both views. On the one side, in the Austrian philosopher we find detailed arguments, maybe the most detailed that can be found in contemporary philosophy, to establish some basic points of Althusser?s argumentation (as the external and social character of the symbolic practices). On the other side, reading Wittgenstein together with Althusser can provide a new insight in the debate concerning the political implications of the Austrian?s philosophy. Finally, the divergences are good reasons to reconsider the ideas of both thinkers. Our argument is concerned with an analogy we perceive between one of the central tenets of both Althusser?s and Wittgenstein?s projects. An explanation that can be suggested for this striking similitude has to do with the similarities between the targets both Wittgenstein and Althusser attack. In the work we are considering, Althusser radically rejects a conception of ideology that could be labelled as ?idealistic? and that can be found in several Marxist reflections which are based on some aspects and ambiguities as they are seen in the presentation of this notion in German Ideology and other classical Marxist texts. We will put this Althusserian movement in line with Wittgenstein?s critical movement towards the ?classical mentalist view? in semantics and epistemology. As mentalist view we understand the view committed with the existence of a domain which had simultaneously normative and explanatory relevance concerning our linguistic and non linguistic behaviour. This role has traditionally been played by ideas, although their role can also be played by dispositions and other states of an individual. According to this view, this domain would play the role of a ?source? from which our behaviour originates, since it has been conceived as immediately accessible to consciousness, allowing us in this way to obtain instructions on how to act in particular circumstances.