Abstract
The history of the concept of ideology has often been analysed.1 None the less, there is some point in commenting upon this history here, since I shall argue that it is indispensable to an evaluation of how ‘ideology’ should be understood in the social sciences. I shall concentrate only upon certain phases in the evolution of the notion: its usage by Marx, still the inevitable point of departure for any contemporary discussion of ideology; Mannheim’s version of the ‘sociology of knowledge’; and the more recent accounts of ideology suggested by Habermas and Althusser.
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Notes and References
See, for example, George Lichtheim, The Concept of Ideology and Other Essays (New York: Vintage, 1967);
Martin Seliger, Ideology and Politics (London: Allen and Unwin, 1976);
Bhikhu Parekh, ‘Social and political thought and the problem of ideology’, in Robert Benewick, Knowledge and Belief in Politics (London: Allen and Unwin, 1973).
Noted by Lichtheim, Concept of Ideology, p. 154; and by Alvin W. Gouldner, The Dialectic of Ideology and Technology (New York: Seabury Press, 1976) pp. 11ff.
Cf. Hans Barth, Wahrheit und Ideologie (Zürich, 1945).
Cf. Sarah Kofman, Camera obscura. De L’idéologie (Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1973) for a discussion of the cultural importance of the camera obscura. Cf. also J. Mepham, ‘The theory of ideology in Capital’, Radical Philosophy, vol. 2 (1972) for comments on ideology in Marx’s early and later writings.
Marx and Engels, The German Ideology (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1965) p. 37.
Both quotes from Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1936) p. 76; See also Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (London: Routledge, 1952).
At other times he preferred to repudiate it. Cf. Gunter W. Remmling, The Sociology of Karl Mannheim (London: Routledge, 1975) pp. 74–5.
Mannheim, ‘Historicism’, in Gunter W. Remmling, Towards the Sociology of Knowledge (London: Routledge, 1973).
R. K. Merton, ‘Karl Mannheim and the sociology of knowledge’, in Social Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe: Free Press, 1963) pp. 491ff.
Cf. A. Neusüss, Utopia, Bewusstein und freischwebende Intelligenz (Meisenheim, 1968).
Jürgen Habermas, Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit (Neuwied: Luchterhand, 1962).
Habermas, ‘Technology and science as ideology’, in Towards a Rational Society (London: Heinemann, 1971) p. 99.
H.-G. Gadamer, Truth and Method (London: Sheed and Ward, 1975).
Habermas, ‘Was heisst Universalpragmatik?’ in K.-O. Apel, Sprachpragmatik und Philosophie (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1976).
This theme is developed in Alvin W. Gouldner, The Dialectic of Ideology and Technology (London: Macmillan, 1976).
Louis Althusser, For Marx (London: Allen Lane, 1969) p. 235 (I have modified the translation). However, Althusser’s use of ‘ideology’ does not always appear consistent. For a relevant discussion,
see Gregor McLennan et al., ‘Althusser’s theory of ideology’ in Working Papers in Cultural Studies, vol. 10 (Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, 1977).
Althusser, ‘Ideology and the state ideological apparatuses’, in Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (London: New Left Books, 1977). Comparison of Lacan’s interpretation of Wo es war, soll Ich werden, with that adopted by Habermas, is relevant here (see pp. 120–1).
Saul Karsz, Théorie et politique: Louis Althusser (Paris: Maspero, 1974) p. 82.
E. Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970).
See, for instance, Lewis S. Feuer, Ideology and the Ideologists (Oxford: Blackwell, 1975). For a survey and analysis of uses of ideology, see Norman Birnbaum, ‘The sociological study of ideology (1940–1960)’, Current Sociology, vol. 9 (1960); George A. Huaco, ‘On ideology’, Acta Sociologica, vol. 14 (1971).
Brian Barry, Political Argument (London: Routledge, 1965) p. 174.
This formulation is prima facie close to that offered by Barry, and some of the qualifications he makes to its use (Political Argument, pp. 178ff) are relevant here, although I shall not discuss them. However, Barry appears for the most part to understand wants in terms of ‘empirical wants’, which is definitely not my position; and he also confines the notion of wants to those concerning the ‘private wants’ of the individual, which brings his view back towards a form of utilitarianism. For a critique, cf. William E. Connolly, The Terms of Political Discourse (Lexington: D. C. Heath, 1974) pp. 53ff.
Norbert Elias, The Civilising Process (Oxford: Blackwell, 1978).
Clifford Geertz, ‘Ideology as a cultural system’, in David Apter (ed.), Ideology and Discontent (New York: Free Press, 1964).
Macpherson et al., ‘Social explanation and political accountability’. One should note the differences between Macpherson’s position and that taken by the theorists of ‘citizenship and social class’. See especially T. H. Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class (Cambridge University Press, 1949);
Reinhard Bendix, Nation-building and Citizenship (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)
For an interesting analysis of Adorno’s criticisms of Lukács in this respect, see Gillian Rose, The Melancholy Science (London: Macmillan, 1978) pp. 40ff. (See also Lukács’s own comments upon his work in the 1967 Preface.)
Georg Lukács, History and Class Consciousness (London: Merlin, 1971) pp. 93–4.
Zygmunt Bauman, Towards a Critical Sociology (London: Routledge, 1976) pp. 34–5.
Daniel Bell, ‘Ideology: a debate’, Commentary, vol. 38 (Oct 1964) p. 70.
For relevant contributions, see Chaim I. Waxman, The End of Ideology Debate (New York: Funk and Wagnall, 1968).
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© 1979 Anthony Giddens
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Giddens, A. (1979). Ideology and Consciousness. In: Central Problems in Social Theory. Contemporary Social Theory. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16161-4_6
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