Ideology: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:07, 3 June 2023

Ideology is the mental lens through which the subject interprets his social-material condition. Ideology encompasses such fields as art, family, culture, religion, philosophy, media, and education.

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and others, like Mao Zedong, all discuss ideology within the context of the class struggle. However, a deeper dive into the function of ideology within capitalism and its mechanical role in the reproduction of a mode of production was most prominently outlined by Louis Althusser in his essay Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (1970).

Rather than seeing ideology merely as a set of ideas or a philosophy, Althusser defined it as a material practice that constitutes individuals as subjects. Ideology, for Althusser, is a 'lived' reality, a part of our everyday life and our perception of the world, not something that can simply be dispelled or 'seen through'. In his conceptualization, ideology works through ideological state apparatuses, the various institutions like family, education, media, etc., that reproduce ideology and, in doing so, reproduce the existing social order.

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-'''Ideology''' has meant many different, often contradictory meanings throughout history. Its common-sense usage implies a set of ideas that characterizes a particular philosophical line of thought. It is the mental lens through which we interpret the world. Ideology encompasses [[Art]], [[Family]], [[Culture]], [[Religion]], [[Philosophy]], [[Law]], [[Media]], [[Politics]], [[Science]] and [[Education]].
+'''Ideology''' is the mental lens through which the subject interprets his social-material condition. Ideology encompasses such fields as [[art]], [[family]], [[culture]], [[religion]], [[philosophy]], [[media]], and [[education]].
-Storytelling is major reproductive component of ideology. [[Lenin|Lenin's]] famous work ''[[Library:What_is_to_be_done%3F|What is to be done?]]'' is inspired by a fiction novel of the same name by [[Nikolai Chernyshevsky]]
+[[Karl Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels]], [[Vladimir Lenin]] and others, like [[Mao Zedong]], all discuss ideology within the context of the [[class struggle]]. However, a deeper dive into the function of ideology within [[capitalism]] and its mechanical role in the reproduction of a [[mode of production]] was most prominently outlined by [[Louis Althusser]] in his essay [[Library:Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses|''Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses'']] (1970).
+Rather than seeing ideology merely as a set of ideas or a philosophy, Althusser defined it as ''a material practice that constitutes individuals as subjects''. Ideology, for Althusser, is a 'lived' reality, a part of our everyday life and our perception of the world, not something that can simply be dispelled or 'seen through'. In his conceptualization, ideology works through [[Ideological state apparatus|ideological state apparatuses]], the various institutions like family, education, media, etc., that reproduce ideology and, in doing so, reproduce the existing social order.
-Marxists often refer to ''ideology'' as a term that defines the bourgeois conception of the world propagated through mass media.
 ==See Also==
-*[[Base_and_superstructure|Base and superstructure]]
+*[[Ideological state apparatus]]
+*[[Base and superstructure]]