I came across this thought and have been, thinking about it…
Marx but especially Engels held this:
“That philosophy is ideology”
from my handy dandy dictionary is this about ideologies:
“a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.”
a set series of ideas and ideals which form an economic and or political theory…
and in thinking about Hegel, that would be true… for Hegel did hold philosophy as
a set series of ideas and ideals which form an economic and/or a political theory…
but given that definition, Marx/Engels also practices philosophy as ideology…
but since Nietzsche, most philosophers haven’t done so… one can’t accuse
Sartre of having a “system” and one surely can’t accuse Foucault of
having a system… nor Heidegger… no, the problem lies with this idea that
philosophy is ideology is that it was how professional philosophers viewed
philosophy before Nietzsche…with few exceptions, philosophers before
the 20th century engaged in philosophy as ideology… as a system…
“the will to a system” as Nietzsche put it, very few hold to that anymore…
the last century, the 20th put an end to the understanding of existence
by the use of systems…if we can talk about the greatness of Nietzsche,
we can include that one thing, we “modern” no longer take systems building
seriously… because of Nietzsche…(and yes, Kierkegaard too)
but let us examine philosophy as ideology… ideology, such as
the Christian ideology or the capitalistic ideology requires
us to hold faith in such an ism/ideology…
but upon what grounds do we hold belief in such ism’s/ideologies?
I hold that most of our belief in ism’s and ideologies come from the fact
that our ism’s and ideologies are beliefs installed in us, as indoctrinations
from our childhood…we are indoctrinated into belief in god, the state,
capitalism, American exceptionalism, nationalism, racism… are each of them,
indoctrinated into us as children…so we don’t come to our ism’s and ideologies
from an engagement with reason or rationality… but from the indoctrinations
of our childhood… so seen this way, we can see Engle is wrong, because
we as philosophers have done as Socrates ask and we have examined our lives
and have engaged with the maxim, to know thyself…
thus we don’t have any inherited isms or ideologies that have been indoctrinated
into us… we have examined our beliefs and put them to the fire, to see if they
have any value for us…do I hold that belief today? no, then why do I continue to
believe in god, to believe in country, to believe in nihilistic economic systems like
capitalism? No, those beliefs are simple indoctrinated beliefs into me as a child…
I am no longer a child and I will not hold to my childish believes, like believing in
Santa Claus…a childhood belief… and lost into time because it no longer fit
to what I was seeing… it no longer fit the facts on the ground…just
as other isms like capitalism and nationalism no longer fit to what I am seeing,
they no longer fit the facts on the ground, as I see them… so, I must
drop those ism’s, indoctrinations that come from my childhood…
so, no Engels is wrong… philosophy isn’t ideology because it has been tested
and engaged with… unlike ideologies that people hold onto because it was
taught to them as children and is very, very comfortable… so, people who
hold onto such beliefs, hold on to them because it is easy, safe and comfortable…
something like Free spirit does… and UR does and Pedro does and observe does…
their beliefs are simply easy to hold beliefs that require no effort because they
were indoctrinated with those beliefs as children… and never got over it…
so, yes, for them philosophy is ideology because it hasn’t be overcome and
reevaluated to see if the ideologies are really our ideologies or simply
just indoctrinations from their childhood…
Kropotkin