What is ideology On Ideology - Literature review Example

However, the meaning of ideology changed with human and political development. Today, different scholars and philosophers are yet to agree on the meaning of ideology and hence they present distinct views related to ideology. Indeed, the term ideology and its study have been subject to a continued debate among renowned political theorists (Freeden 2006, p. 3). Notably, ideology constitutes ideas that define human actions and objectives. The political theorists have been arguing about ideology in relation to the scienti?

c standing of ideology, its epistemological status, and its totalitarian and liberal manifestations (Freeden 2006, p. 3). As such, ideologies assume a fundamental role in helping us to understand and design the modern political arena. Ideally, we have different political ideologies, which include liberalism, conservatism, socialism, feminism, and green political thought. Nevertheless, philosophers have failed to explore the nature of these ideologies and establish a universal meaning of ideologies.

As such, they have different views on ideology. For example, the German Ideology by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels presents the authors views on ideology, communism, materialism, and revolution (Gasper 2004, p. 1). Another political scientist, Kenneth Minogue also uses communism to explain ideology. Indeed, Kenneth Minogue reckons that the collapse of communism did not mark the end of ideologies (Minogue 2006, p. 4-6). Furthermore, the German Ideology claims that historical materialism assumed the position of an integral theory (libcom.

org 2013, p. 1). The German Ideology criticizes Hegel’s view on socialism and consequently demonstrates that social conflicts, which are present in capitalism, leads to socialism (Gasper 2004, p. 1). More so, Kenneth Minogue notes that after the collapse of communism, we now have a collection of overlapping fragments of revelation, which cooperate with each other in social transformation (Minogue 2006, p. 8-11). More so, just like the other political theorists, who refer to socialism to address ideologies, Michael Freeden claims that the methodologies of studying ideologues encompass conceptual malleability and ideational pluralism, and offer bridges between identifying ‘social facts’ and their inevitable interpretation (Freeden 2006, p. 3). This assertion seeks to explain modern ideologies.

The German ideology criticizes the proletarian world outlook (libcom.org 2013, p. 1) and their philosophy reflected the Germany’s economic and political backwardness. We can establish that Karl Marx’s support on radical democracy and human liberation led him to communism. According to Marx in the German ideology, the starting point for understanding human society is actual human beings and the material conditions in which they live but not in the realm of ideas (Gasper 2004, p. 1). According to Marx, material circumstances create the distinct ideologies and moral, religious, and other beliefs that humans possess (Gasper 2004, p. 1). The German ideology equally notes that actual material conditions produce communist revolution since there will be contradictions in capitalism.

It also asserts that transformations in a society depend on the working class who possess material conditions and occupy a unique position in capitalism (Gasper 2004, p. 1). The German Ideology assumes that it is reality, which creates the mind, and the mind does not create reality. Indeed, Marx and Engels regarded the ideology as an upside-down sublimation, a set of ‘re?exes and echoes of life process’, of ‘phantoms formed in the human brain’ detached from the world (Freeden 2006, p. 4). More so, Karl Marx assumes the hegemony of a uni?

ed ideological position