The work of French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser is undergoing a revival of interest today. This session explains core ideas in Althusser's later writings--including the "aleatory" (meaning "chance" and "contingency"), the "conjuncture," and the "philosophy of the encounter." These notions--as well as aspects of the "postmodern materialism" which they permeate--are then evaluated from the standpoint of revolutionary politics.

Katja Diefenbach et al., eds, Encountering Althusser: Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought (Bloomsbury, 2013).