Di cosa è capace la filosofia materialista? Il contributo filosofico alla fondazione di una nuova scienza secondo Althusser

This paper is devoted to the Althusserian theory of philosophy and in particular to the distinction between materialist and idealist philosophy. Materialist philosophy, for Althusser, is primarily that which accepts to operate at the back of the sciences rather than to occupy a foundational role in relation to scientific concepts and methods.In this article, however, two situations in which this relationship is complicated are examined: the first is given by the role that philosophy occupies in the foundation of a new science; the second concerns the status of epistemology between the sociology of science and philosophy. What is at stake more generally is to focus on the possible place of philosophy with respect to social science, that is, to knowledge dedicated to historical and practical reality.