Knowledge versus "Knowledge'': Louis Althusser on the Autonomy of Science and Philosophy from Ideology

As a Marxist philosopher, Louis Althusser consistently argues that scientific knowledge is objective and real and that practical knowledge of objective political and cultural realities is knowable as well. If it is the case that these claims are defensible, then Althusser may have not only developed an epistemology supportive of Marxist philosophy and practice, but also may have suggested a tenable philosophy of science, one that resists the Scylla of positivism and the Charybdis of extreme cultural and historical relativism. This article discusses the limitations of Althusser's method for marking the distinction between science and ideology as well as the promise that this method holds for political practice when such critique is understood as a new method of Marxist philosophy.