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Definition:
The term "ideology" was first coined by the philosopher Destutt de Tracy to refer to a
"science of ideas" which he hoped would reveal people's unconscious habits of mind.
Today, it now tends to refer to those very habits of mind - beliefs, assumptions,
expectations, etc. - which are superimposed on the world in order to give it structure
and meaning and which then serve to direct our political or social activities.
Typically, an ideology is the creation of some identifiable group (political, cultural, economic) for the purpose of spreading or maintaining its perspective on reality among themselves and others. In effect, an ideology creates the assumption that this dominance is natural and desirable. For example, some Marxist critics talk about embourgeoisement, which involves the ideological suppression of differences between social classes by getting all people to simply assume that the values of the middle class are best and normal.
In Marxist thought, an ideology is actually a distortion of reality, created in an effort to control reality and, by extension, other people. Ideology is instrumental in the creation of one's social identity. Through ideology, one acquires the sense of self as consumer, conservative, liberal, libertarian, Christian, rebel, etc. Without a constructive ideology, one feels lost in a sea of possibilities and choices which seem too difficult to deal with on a conscious level. With a constructive ideology, many choices are made automatically through assumption and expectation. Existentialism would label such an ideology as a form of bad faith, an inauthentic way of dealing with reality so as to avoid the responsibility of creating an authentic self. Marxists call it false consciousness, because it is consciousness imposed by outside forces and does not reflect genuine, personal awareness on the part of the person of their historical circumstances.
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Related Resources:
What is the Logic and the Philosophy of Language?
The two fields Logic and the Philosophy of Language are often treated separately, but they are nevertheless close enough that they are presented together here. Logic is the study of methods of reasoning and argumentation, both proper and improper. The Philosophy of Language, on the other hand, involves the study of how our language interacts with our thinking.What are Political and Legal Philosophy
The Philosophy of Politics and the Philosophy of Law are often studied separately, but they are presented here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community, while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals.
