French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Ibrahim (ed.), Around Althusser: For an Aleatory Materialism
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Around Althusser - For an Aleatory Materialism: Problems and Perspectives
Annie Ibrahim
Collective

PUBLICATION DATE: 05/09/12 PUBLISHER: Le Temps des Cerises SERIES: matiere a pensees ISBN: 978-2-84109-930-6 EAN: 9782841099306 FORMAT: Paperback NO. OF PAGES: 200 p. 18 €

Étienne Balibar, Olivier Bloch, Jean-Claude Bourdin, Isabelle Garo, Alain Gigandet, Pascale Gillot, Annie Ibrahim, Irène Pereira, and André Tosel examine in this work the problems and perspectives arising from Althusserian materialism. "A throw of the dice will never abolish chance." Althusser briefly comments on this famous Mallarméan maxim in a 1982 text - The Underground Current of the Materialism of the Encounter.

He concludes there that history is nothing but the permanent revocation of the accomplished fact by the “fact-to-be-accomplished,” without anyone ever knowing in advance where or how. A matter of a roll of the dice cast upon an empty table... Thus is determined a position in philosophy and politics, an unprecedented foundation that appeals to the aleatory and presents itself as a “work in progress” open to our exploration. Indeed, the categories of the subject, alienation, the dialectic, and ideology are discarded or shaken in favor of the hazardous process and the vicissitude of forms.

Yet, neither the primacy of the class struggle nor the thesis of the objective materiality of the world is sacrificed to this new horizon of the conjuncture. There may be two paths of materialism, both equally legitimate: the materialism of necessity and the materialism of the encounter. Let us wager that the latter can enable the living elements of a political whole to “latch onto” one another and onto the whole in such a way that what is true in theory is also true in practice.

This collective volume brings together prominent contemporary thinkers, including Étienne Balibar, Olivier Bloch, and André Tosel, to examine the late theoretical turns of French philosopher Louis Althusser. Centered on his concept of an aleatory materialism—or the materialism of the encounter—the book investigates how contingency and the metaphor of the dice roll reshape traditional Marxist and structuralist paradigms. Rather than relying on a teleological necessity, the contributors trace a subterranean current in philosophy where history is understood as an open process without a pre-determined guarantee, inviting a rigorous rethinking of both theory and political practice.

Ideal for students and researchers of modern European philosophy, political theory, and Marxist studies, this collection provides essential tools for navigating Althusser's later texts. It addresses central conceptual shifts, questioning how categories like ideology and the dialectic function once necessity is displaced by hazard. By placing these essays in conversation, the volume serves as a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand the ongoing debates surrounding materialism, historical agency, and the complex relationship between philosophical concepts and concrete political intervention today.