Existentialism, Marxism, and law

pp. 26-50

in: Bob Jessop, Nicos Poulantzas, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1985

Abstract

Neither in his undergraduate studies in Greece nor in his postgraduate researches in Germany and France did Poulantzas fully encounter all three sources of his mature work. Even as a student for the Baccalauréat, Poulantzas became involved with French philosophy. Both his father's profession and his own first degree work exposed him to legal questions. But Italian politics were still a shadow on his intellectual horizon and would remain so for some years after he left Athens. In this chapter I examine the background and nature of his early work on the philosophy of law before Poulantzas became acquainted with Gramsci's politics. This occurred around the same time that Poulantzas established contact with the Althusserian circle. The combination of these events marked an important theoretical and epistemological shift in his work. Because it constitutes a relatively self-contained philosophical corpus and displays little continuity with his subsequent analyses, the early work of Poulantzas is almost wholly unknown and, it must be admitted, Poulantzas himself chose to disavow it. But there is no sound reason for us to ignore this work. Indeed, as I hope to show, although he renounced his "erstwhile philosophical consciousness", these legal studies exercised a continuing subterranean influence on Poulantzas.