This study aims to elucidate in what sense the Althusserian theory of ideology is a spinozistic one. It has been generally considered as a Lacanian theory, and even criticized by some commentators as a failed one. Slavoy Zizek found the reasons of its...
This study aims to elucidate in what sense the Althusserian theory of ideology is a spinozistic one. It has been generally considered as a Lacanian theory, and even criticized by some commentators as a failed one. Slavoy Zizek found the reasons of its failure in the theoretical connections between the Althusserian theory and the Spinozism and criticized their common limitations from the viewpoint of Lacanian psychoanalysis. In my thought, he was surely right to find the essential theoretical relation between Althusser and Spinoza, but he totally failed to understand its meaning and significance. I think the point is to clarify the meaning of “the imaginary” in the philosophy of Spinoza “The imaginary” is important not only to understand Spinoza’s anthropology, but also to bring a new light on the Althusserian theory of ideology. Then, I hope, one can explain the difficulties of Zizek’s own theory of ideology in the light of the materialist concept of the imaginal}’ which is shared by Spinoza and Althusser