Interpellation (philosophy)

In Marxist theory, especially that of Louis Althusser, interpellation is a culture's or ideology's creating of identity for "individuals".

Not to be confused with interpolation or interpolation (disambiguation).
For the parliamentary procedure of the same name, see Interpellation (politics).
This article is about philosophy. For sociology and creation of self-concept, see Internalization (sociology).
For Freud's psychology, see Identification (psychology).
For the position in the "nature versus nurture" debate in psychology and philosophy of mind, see Social determinism, Cultural determinism, Enculturation, Tabula rasa, Social learning theory, and Externalism.

According to Althusser, "ideology has always-already interpellated individuals as subjects." He further remarks about the individual identity under these conditions:

the individual is interpellated as a (free) subject in order that he shall submit freely to the commandments of the Subject, i.e. in order that he shall (freely) accept his subjection, i.e. in order that he shall make the gestures and actions of his subjection 'all by himself'.

Althusser views society as made up of ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) and repressive state apparatuses (RSAs) which are instrumental to constant reproduction of the relations to the production of that given society. While RSAs are institutions that directly repress dissent and opposition (police/military) ISAs reproduce capitalism through non-repressive ideological means (family, church, schools, the media and politics). Consequently, 'interpellation' describes the process by which ideology, embodied in major social and political institutions (ISAs and RSAs), constitutes the very nature of individual subjects' identities through the process of "hailing" them in social interactions.

Althusser's thought has made significant contributions to other French philosophers, notably Derrida, Kristeva, Barthes, Foucault, Deleuze, and Badiou.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.