Ideology and Consciousness

The history of the concept of ideology has often been analysed. 1 None the less, there is some point in commenting upon this history here, since I shall argue that it is indispensable to an evaluation of how ‘ideology’ should be understood in the social sciences. I shall concentrate only upon certain phases in the evolution of the notion: its usage by Marx, still the inevitable point of departure for any contemporary discussion of ideology; Mannheim’s version of the ‘sociology of knowledge’; and the more recent accounts of ideology suggested by Habermas and Althusser.