The patterns we observe in nature convince the natural sciences to search for the immutable laws that guide these patterns. Society displays patterns but immutable laws do not guide these patterns. The patterns of society are man made. I am interested in understanding these patterns as a means for understanding who determines these patterns and why.
Those pattern makers, those public policy makers, determine and maintain the dominant ideology that functions as the laws of society. Every society, to some degree, is set upon a path of development and maintained on that path by a small group of individuals.
Everything is influenced by the dominant ideology and every society has a dominant ideology. “Marx’s Theory of Ideology†is a great source for an understanding of this very important concept.
It appears that ideology became in the nineteenth century a major concept of epistemology as a result of the work accomplished by Karl Marx. It was a distinct form of reasoning about human society that was historical and universal in form. Ideology became an epistemological category designed to conceptualize a distinctive form of thought. Ideology refers to a systematically biased and self-contained study of ideas.
Ideology is like a gentle almost indiscernible mist that nourishes constantly and unobserved by the people. Ideology has a source and a target.
I seek to understand the who, what and why of these policy makers. To do so I seek to understand ideology and human nature.
I think that the bullfight is a useful analogy for my view of society. The matador is the policy makers, the cape is the ideology and the bull is the people.
Ideologies. A useful subject to talk about.
Ideology the word itself, I believe was coined
in France during the reign of Napoleon. Explain a bit
doesn’t it. Oh, anyway, Ideologies are the underpinnings
of every single society. Ideology: 1.The principal ideas
or beliefs that characterize a particular class, group
or movement. 2. the ideas that form the basis of an
economic or political theory etc. Marxist ideology.
Ideology is simply a viewpoint/perspective of
x number of people. I am a liberal. The ideology we
hold drives our actions. We believe that people can change
and punishment is not necessary for every person and
in fact education would serve a far better role in
the legal system then the current system of severely
punishing even children for acts they don’t comprehend.
So we favor schools instead of prisons. That is a
way ideology, the believes drive the actions.
Now what happens if the ideology that drives the
actions is not in sync with the times. For example
when the U.S. was expanding the country, the ideology
that was in sync with the actions is the idea that the
only good Indian was a dead Indian. It was OK, not
only to drive Indian’s off their land, but it was OK, to
kill them. If you killed an Indian, not to much fuss was made.
Now that same idea carried into today, the only good Indian
is a dead Indian, would carry the holder of that believe
in prison for a very, very, very long time. The ideology
that once served people well, is not necessary, the times
have changed and the ideology must change with the times.
Now what happens if the a country tries to live, to do its thing,
with an outdated ideology. The ideology does not fit with
the current events. An example is the Romans. The Romans
had a successful ideology that lasted for centuries,
when the Republic fell, the ideology that supported the
republic continued. I suspect that is in part, IN PART, as
to why Rome finally fell, the ideology did not match
the current events. Now I suspect that we are victims of
the same thing. We are living an ideology that does not
match the times and that is the reason for
the sense of dislocation and unease we fell today.
We hold viewpoints that do not match the events today.
An example is the idea of rugged individualism. it is an
idea whose time has long passed, yet it still exist
in current Republican ideology. Other ideologies that
I believe that has failed is communism, capitalism, and
the religious ideologies. The old style religions no longer
work and people are searching for something new.
thus people are leaving the Catholic church and going
to the born again christian movement. It is a time of change
when the old underpinnings of ideology that has existed
for centuries are no longer relevent for the times.
We are in a time of change because of the realization
we must have new ideologies to match the new times.
Sorry to intrude, but what follows also pertains to ideology. After having initially thought that my subject (posted on this board a couple hours ago) and all responses on Desartes (Question of logic) had been purely scrapped, I now realize that it has been relegated to the “Mundane Babble” section! We are here at the heart, or rather the (“modern day”) source, of the two philosophical streams of thought (idealism vs realism), and the site moderators consider this to be worthy of mundane babble!!! There is something awry going on here I say! If the only school of thought that has a right of say here is idealism then this site should be named Iloveidealism.com or why not Ilovemundanebabble.com!! I was looking forward to dicsussing with a few people here, like JP, but I now very much doubt any meaningful discussion takes place. I may come back to post something on Descartes tomorrow, or then again I may not, but it I do we shall see how long my message will survive on this board!
Your thoughts awaken a problem I have with understanding “ideologyâ€. It seems that ‘ideology’ like ‘love’ is thrown about and means whatever anyone wishes it to mean and thus means nothing. I wonder if you could help me here? What are the categories of ideology? What are the essential characteristics of ideology? How can I develop an understanding of this concept such that it does not just become a pile of mush?
I think I understand your frustration. I tried to find the post you refered to but was unable. I think that you indicate a frustration that most discussion forums are what I call ‘verbal video games’.
However I hope that it is possible to find a few forums that can integrate various forms of intellectual exchange that does not have to be devoured by graffito. I think that we must persist in introducing our type of discussion if such is to happen. Please do not give up in frustration.
C: “Your thoughts awaken a problem I have with understanding “ideologyâ€. It seems that ‘ideology’ like ‘love’ is thrown about and means whatever anyone wishes it to mean and thus means nothing. I wonder if you could help me here? What are the categories of ideology? What are the essential characteristics of ideology? How can I develop an understanding of this concept such that it does not just become a pile of mush?”
K: Ideology seems to be a viewpoint/perspective of the world.
Now what are the categories of viewpoints/perspectives?
What are the essential characteristics of viewpoints/perspectives?
Machiavelli once wrote, in the prince I think, that man is same
today as he ever was or ever will be. He doesn’t believe in
change in human beings. That is a viewpoint held by conservatives
today as a matter of fact. Now from this viewpoint flows the
idea that we need not coddle criminals because they
were born that way and will die that way and cannot ever
change because that’s it. So the ideology of punishment and
prisons that exist within more conservative people flows
from the idea that people cannot change, if they are bad, they
stay bad till death. Ideology is simply viewpoints codified into
a theory. Now the second factor is laziness. With an ideology,
one does not have to really think. Get a problem, refer back
to already in place ideogy.
Question: crime is on the rise.
Answer from ideology:
Conservative: punishment and prison.
Liberal: take away the reasons for crime with
better education and better resources for the poor.
Ideology provides a ready made answer for what ails you.
This quote is from “Marx’s Theory of Ideologyâ€:
“First, Marx nowhere carefully analyses any of the basic categories in terms of which his theory of ideology is structured and articulated. As we saw, such concepts as presupposition, point of view, social position, bias, distortion, class, conditions of existence, forms of thought, criticism, universalisation and apologia are its constitutive categories.â€