Two comments on Althusser and Foucault.
1. in response to Mathew: recall Foucault' s admission (i can't
remember the interview, sorry) that there are two types of authors
that he draws on--one group he cites and discusses their work; the
second group he USES (i.e. makes groan and protest). in
addition, it seems a little simplistic to treat foucault's own
intepretation of the influences on his work as authoritative!
2. in response to Joe: as far as your suggestion that Althusser
was the first antihumanist, Althusser himself gives credit to the late
Marx as being amongst the first 'antihumanists' (we could begin to
comment on spinoza or hegel, but this isn't the place). indeed,
Foucault also identifies freud, as well as nietzsche, the work of
anthropologists (mauss and levi-strauss come to mind) and literary
criticism (barthes, todorov...). my point is that Foucault is not the '
first' antihumanist, but neither is Althusser.
Regards to all,
Campbell Jones