| This study examines the writings of Marx and Engels to see what consistent theory of ideology can be extracted from them. The focus is on the original sources, the works of Marx and Engels themselves, rather than on their expositors, though naturally in the course of this examination the analyses of other commentators are discussed.;The guiding perspective is basically a philosophical one, with the subject matter of ideology being approached from the viewpoint of characteristically philosophical concerns, such as the question of the meaning of the term, the epistemic issue of its relation to science, and the problems raised by the notion of "economic determination". However, where necessary, material has been drawn upon from other disciplines, such as sociology and political science. The hope is that this electicism has enriched rather than diluted the thesis.;Chapter one surveys a representative sample of opinions on what Marx and Engels meant by "ideology", and concludes, on the basis of a close investigation of the texts, that most contemporary interpretations of their intentions are actually mistaken.;Chapter two examines in detail and with concrete examples one of the patterns of unscientific thinking Marx was most intent upon exposing: the ideological assimilation of the social to the natural.;The third chapter looks at a perennial problem of Marx and Engels' social theory, the difficulties arising from the claim that society can be divided into a "base" and a "superstructure", which interact reciprocally, yet with predominant base influence.;Chapters four and five then try to work out in detail, and with the help of sociological data, the meaning of this "economic determination" of ideologies, and its implications for proletarian consciousness. It is argued that the worker's consciousness is better described as "contradictory" than simply "false".;Finally, chapter six compares at length Marx and Engels' position on the role of revolutionary intellectuals with the views of Lenin and Gramsci. |
