The issue of the overdetermination between Althusser and Laclau-Mouffe

an epistemological discussion

Abstract

The present text poses a confron­tation between Althusser and Laclau-Mouffe, with regard to the concept of overdetermi­nation. It is argued that this concept is at the center of a dispute posed in eminently episte­mological terms. Whereas in Laclau and Mouffe this notion gives an account of the discursive constitution of the social, understanding dis­course as a transcendental instance in relation to the being of the social, for Althusser it is a concept that produces positive knowledge of the social taken as an object. Understanding the discussion in these terms allows us to think dif­ferently about the relationship with the category of determination in the last instance.