Ideology

Abstract Ideologies in the most general sense are systems of ideas and beliefs that shape people's thoughts and behavior. The term ideology is used in many different ways. Some differing usages are entirely consistent, while others are controversial and contested. One species of usages refers to belief and belief systems in general. Another species refers to the concrete traditions of political philosophy for mass consumption that emerged and have evolved since the mid‐eighteenth century, such as liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, and socialism. The word idéologie (ideology) appeared at the time of the French Revolution. The Enlightenment philosophe Antoine Destutt de Tracy (1754–1836) coined the term as the name for his new “science of ideas.” Yet it was Karl Marx who gave “ideology” the sense that has evolved into modern usages of the word. For Destutt de Tracy, ideology was a science, a search for truth through the study of ideas. Marx transformed the meaning of the term into one quite opposite, ideology meaning false belief and distortion of reality. Since Marx, the meaning of ideology has evolved in different directions and the term has been used in many different senses.