Epistemological Break
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A concept in the philosophy of science introduced by Gaston Bachelard in 1938 and applied to Marxism by Louis Althusser, denoting a radical, discontinuous break that separates the prehistory of a science (ideology) from its scientific phase. In For Marx (1965), Althusser argued that an epistemological break divides Marx's early humanist, Hegelian problematic from his mature scientific one, thereby distancing himself from both Marxist humanism and Stalinist orthodoxy. Alongside Althusser's structural Marxism, the theory of ideological state apparatuses, and overdetermination, it formed a cornerstone of the postwar renewal of Marxist theory, though it was also criticized for overstating discontinuity.
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- Wikipedia (EN) Wikipedia: Bachelard's 1938 concept and Althusser's adoption; the break separates the prehistory of a science (ideology) from science proper
- books.openedition.org Chapter 6 of The Age of Rupture (Presses universitaires de Provence): the epistemological break as a key concept of discontinuity applied by Althusser to Marx's work, marking the divide between early humanist writings and mature scientific analysis of capital
- crisiscritique.org Gillot (Crisis & Critique, 2018): Althusser radicalized Bachelard's 'rupture' into 'coupure' (cut) to account for the irreversible discontinuity between science and ideology in Marx's development