Philosophy of the Encounter: Later Writings 1978–1987

Abstract

Philosoplry of the Encounter collects nearly all the philosophical work that Louis Althusser produced from late 1977 to the year he stopped producing philosophy, 1987. The main texts in it, 'Marx in his Limits' and 'The Underground Current of the Materialism of the Encounter', date, respectively, from 1978-79 and 1982-83. Between them lies an abyss, in one sense in 1980, overtaken by the psychosis that stalked him down to his death a decade later, Althusser killed his wife Helene Rytman - and nothing, in another: 'The Underground Current' (rather, the amorphous manuscript out of which Francois Matheron has skilfully carved it) was the fIrst piece of any note to come from Althusser's pen after he laid 'Marx in his Limits' aside.