On Future: A Critique of the Linear History and Debates between Kojève and Althusser

Abstract

This research paper follows the questions; how is “future” important to humans and changes in human society?; what is the concept of "time" which allows human beings to create their own futures and histories freely. It argues that Louis Althusser’s structuralist theory can help us resolve the the Hegelian theological problem as seen in Alexandre Kojève’s work. For Kojève, the future has a definite end and has already been pre-determined and human beings have no freedom to act and change their own history. Althusser’s theory challenges this idea, particularly on the linearity of time. Althusser’s theory emphasises holes and cracks that are distinct in times, and each hole and crack allows human beings to create their own history. In this sense, the understanding of social changes cannot base on the pre-existing conception of time. To change history, it necessarily requires a new concept of time that will allow the future to be opened. This understanding of the relationship between time and social change is at the heart of the study of sociology.