Politics and History. Montesquieu, Rousseau, Hegel and Marx PDF
Preview Politics and History. Montesquieu, Rousseau, Hegel and Marx
Louis Althusser NLB Politics and History Montesquieu, Rousseau, Hegel and Marx Translated from the French by Ben Brewster ‘Montesquieu: Politics and History’ first published by Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1959, © PUF, 1959; ‘The Social Contract’ first published in Cahiers pour F Analyse, no. 8 : Ulmpensé de Jean- Jacques Rousseau, n.d., © Le Graphe; ‘Marx’s Relation to Hegel’ first published in Hegel et la Pensée Moderne by Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1970, © PUF, 1970. This translation first published, 1972 © NLB, 1972 NLB, 7 Carlisle Street, London, wi Designed by Gerald Cinamon Typeset in Monotype Ehrhardt and printed by Western Printing Services Ltd, Bristol Acknowledgments b Translator’s note 7 Part One MONTESQUIEU: POLITICS AND HISTORY Foreword 13 1. A Revolution in Method 17 2. A New Theory of Law 31 3. The Dialectic of History 43 4. ‘There are Three Governments . . 61 5. The Myth of the Separation of Powers 87 6. Montesquieu’s Parti Pris 96 Conclusion 107 Bibliography 108 Part Two ROUSSEAU: THE SOCIAL CONTRACT Foreword 113 1. Posing the Problem 116 2. The Solution of the Problem: Discrepancy I 125 3. The Contract and Alienation 135 4. Total Alienation and Exchange: Discrepancy II 140 5. Particular Interest and General Interest, Particular Will and General Will: Discrepancy III 146 6. Flight Forward in Ideology or Regression in the Economy: Discrepancy IV 155 Part Three MARX’S RELATION TO HEGEL l6l Index 187 Acknowledgments : We are grateful to J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd for their kind permission to use extracts from The Social Contract and Discourses, translated by G. D. H. Cole, and from Émile, translated by Barbara Foxley, both published in Everyman’s Library. Translator's note : Quotations from the works of Montesquieu in Part One of this book have in general been taken from the four- volume translation by Thomas Nugent entitled The Works of Monsieur de Montesquieu, published in London in 1777. Refer ences to the Spirit of Laws give the Book number in Roman and the chapter number in Arabic numerals: thus, SL, vin, 9 means The Spirit of Laws, Book vm, Chapter 9. Quotations from Rousseau in Parts One and Two have been taken either from The Social Contract and Discourses, translated by G. D. H. Cole, in the Everyman’s Library edition of 1966, or from Émiley translated by Barbara Foxley, in the Everyman’s Library edition of 1957. Page references are to these editions. However, the translator has taken the liberty of altering these translations whenever questions of consistency of terminology, or facilitating the reader’s understanding of Althusser’s commentary, have arisen. Quotations from Marx, Engels and Lenin in Part Three have been taken from the standard English translations of their works, published in England by Lawrence and Wishart. Part One Montesquieu: Politics and History To apply the ideas of the present time to distant ages, is the most fruitful source of error. To those people who want to modernize all the ancient ages, I shall say what the Egyptian priests said to Solon, ‘O Athenians, you are mere children.’ The Spirit of Lam, xxx, 14. Montesquieu made us see . . . Mme De Staël France had lost her claims to nobility; Montesquieu gave her them back. Voltaire
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