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An ideology is a collection of ideas. The word ideology was first used in the late 18th century to define a "science of ideas." An ideology can be thought of as a vision, as a way of looking at things (compare Weltanschauung), as in common sense (cf. Ideology in everyday society, below) and several philosphical tendencies (cf. Political ideologies below), or as a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society (the Marxist definition of ideology).
Every society has an ideology that forms the basis of the "public opinion" or common sense, a basis that usually remains invisible to most people within the society. This dominant ideology appears as "neutral", all others differ from the norm and are often seen as radical, no matter what the actual vision may be. The philosopher Michel Foucault wrote about this concept of apparent ideological neutrality.
Organisations that strive for power influence the ideology of a society to become what they want it to be. Political organisations (governments included) and other groups (e.g. lobbyists) try to influence people by broadcasting their opinions, which is the reason why so often many people in a society seem to "think alike".
When most people in a society think alike about certain matters, or even forget that there are alternatives to the current state of affairs, we arrive at the concept of Hegemony, about which the philosopher Antonio Gramsci wrote. The much smaller-scale concept of groupthink also owes something to his work.
Modern linguists study the mechanism of conceptual metaphor, by which this 'thinking alike' is thought to be transmitted.
There are many different kinds of ideology: political, social, epistemological, ethical, and so on.
In social studies, a political ideology is a doctrine that explains how the society should work and offers the blueprint for a certain social order. A political ideology largely concerns itself with how to allocate power and to what ends it should be used. For example, one of the most influential and well-defined political ideologies during the 20th century was communism, based on the original formulations of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Other examples of ideologies include: anarchism, capitalism, communitarianism, corporate liberalism, Christian democracy, fascism, liberalism, monarchism, nationalism, nazism, Neo-nazism or neofascism, socialism, and social-democracy. Ideology studied as ideology (rather than examples of specific ideologies) has been carried out under the name systematic ideology. See also "capitalism as an ideology", a section of the page on capitalism.
The popularity of an ideology is in part due to the influence of moral entrepeneurs, who sometimes act in their own interests. A political ideology is the body of doctrine, myth, or symbol of a social movement, institution, class, or large group that references some political and cultural plan. It can be a construct of political thought, often defining political parties and their policy.
A certain ethic usually forms the basis of an ideology.
Even when there is a discipline of challenging beliefs, as in science, the dominant paradigm or mindset can prevent certain challenges, theories or experiments from being advanced. The philosophy of science mostly concerns itself with reducing the impact of these prior ideologies so that science can proceed with its primary task (according to science) of creating knowledge.
There are critics who view science as an ideology in itself, called scientism. Some scientists respond that, while the scientific method is itself an ideology, as it is a collection of ideas, that there is nothing particularly wrong or bad about it.
Other critics point out that while science itself is not a misleading ideology, there are some fields of study within science that are misleading. Two examples discussed here are in the fields of ecology and economics.
A special and critical case of science adopted as ideology is that of ecology, which studies the relationships between living things on Earth. Perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson believed that human perception of ecological relationships was the basis of self-awareness and cognition itself. Linguist George Lakoff has proposed a cognitive science of mathematics wherein even the most fundamental ideas of arithmetic would be seen as consequences or products of human perception - which is itself necessarily evolved within an ecology.
Deep ecology and the modern ecology movement (and, to a lesser degree, Green parties) appear to have adopted ecological sciences as a positive ideology.
Some accuse ecological economics of likewise turning scientific theory into political economy, although theses in that science can often be tested. The modern practice of green economics fuses both approaches and seems to be part science, part ideology.
It is far from the only theory of economics to be raised to ideology status - some notable economically-based ideologies include mercantilism, social darwinism, communism, laissez-faire economics, and "free trade". There are likewise current theories of safe trade and fair trade that are difficult to distinguish from ideological positions.
Karl Marx proposed a base/superstructure model of society. The base refers to the means of production of society. The superstructure is formed on top of the base, and comprises the society's ideology, as well as its legal system, political system, and religions. Marx proposed that the base determines the superstructure. It is the ruling class that control the society's means of production, and thus the superstructure of society, including its ideology, will be determined according to what is in the ruling class' best interests. Critics of the Marxist idea feel that it attributes too much importance to economic factors, and that there are many other factors influencing society.
The ideologies of the dominant class of a society are proposed to all members of the society in order to make their interests appear to be in the collective interest and thereby achieve hegemony. To achieve this, ideology makes use of a special type of discourse: the lacunar discourse, as discussed by Althusser. In this a number of propositions, which are never untrue, suggest a number of other propositions, which are. In this way, the essence of the lacunar discourse is what is not told (but is suggested).
For example, the statement 'All are equal before the law', which is a theory behind current legal systems, suggests that all people may be of equal worth or have equal 'opportunities'. This is not true, because the concept of private property of the means of production results in some people being able to own more than others, their property having power and influence.
Forms of ideology and stages of development in capitalism:
liberalism,
social democracy and
neo-liberalism
are the main forms of bourgeois ideology (the ideology of capitalist society), and correspond to the stages of development of capitalism:
extensive stage
intensive stage
contemporary capitalism (or late capitalism, or current crisis)
References
Althusser, Louis Reading Capital ('Pour lire le Capital')
Gramsci, Antonio Prison notebooks
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