Larrain - Marxism and Ideology
1. On the character of ideology
The stages of Marx’s intellectual development
● three stages of Marx’s intellectual development
○ first - his involvement in a philosophical debate and critique over ideas
of Hegel and Feuerbach (up to 1844)
○ second - the construction of historical materialism (1845-1857, best
articulated in Theses on Feuerbach and The German Ideology)
■ this is where the concept of ideology was first produced
○ third - when Marx began his detailed analysis of capitalist social
relations (1858 onwards)
Ideology and philosophical critique
● the negative content of ideology is anticipated in Marx’s critique of religion and of the
Hegelian conception of the state
○ in both cases, the decisive problem for Marx was the inversion in thought
which concealed the real nature of things
● Hegel identified being and thought and treated the Idea as the real, with human practice a
mere manifestation of this Idea
○ hence Hegel thought that contemporary state institutions were the self-
realization of the Idea
■ from this comes the view that the Prussian state is the
incarnation of God’s will
● Marx scorned this conservatism as a
necessary consequence of Hegel’s idealism
○ but Hegel saw contradictions in the contemporary state, and sought to
bridge the gap between the state and civil society by invoking the form of the medieval
estates
■ but this presupposes that civil society could determine
the political state, rather than be determined by it
● Hegel saw contradiction in the
phenomenal world as unity in its essence (the Idea), but this is an upside
down conception
● Marx recognized here that ideologies were not mere illusions, but were rooted in reality
● Feuerbach saw religion as an illusion; an objectification of man’s own essence projected
into a being called God
○ he claimed that man could liberate himself by discovering this, and that
such liberation is the role of philosophical critique
■ Marx rejected this: man is no abstract being outside
society, and hence cannot liberate himself in the realm of ideas/essences -
liberation consists in destroying the social world that produces the illusion
● so the ieological inversion responds to
and derives from a real inversion
● At this stage Marx still had a fairly idealist conception of the relationship between theory
and practice - revolution in practice is seen as founded in the insights of philosophical critique
1. On the character of ideology
The stages of Marx’s intellectual development
● three stages of Marx’s intellectual development
○ first - his involvement in a philosophical debate and critique over ideas
of Hegel and Feuerbach (up to 1844)
○ second - the construction of historical materialism (1845-1857, best
articulated in Theses on Feuerbach and The German Ideology)
■ this is where the concept of ideology was first produced
○ third - when Marx began his detailed analysis of capitalist social
relations (1858 onwards)
Ideology and philosophical critique
● the negative content of ideology is anticipated in Marx’s critique of religion and of the
Hegelian conception of the state
○ in both cases, the decisive problem for Marx was the inversion in thought
which concealed the real nature of things
● Hegel identified being and thought and treated the Idea as the real, with human practice a
mere manifestation of this Idea
○ hence Hegel thought that contemporary state institutions were the self-
realization of the Idea
■ from this comes the view that the Prussian state is the
incarnation of God’s will
● Marx scorned this conservatism as a
necessary consequence of Hegel’s idealism
○ but Hegel saw contradictions in the contemporary state, and sought to
bridge the gap between the state and civil society by invoking the form of the medieval
estates
■ but this presupposes that civil society could determine
the political state, rather than be determined by it
● Hegel saw contradiction in the
phenomenal world as unity in its essence (the Idea), but this is an upside
down conception
● Marx recognized here that ideologies were not mere illusions, but were rooted in reality
● Feuerbach saw religion as an illusion; an objectification of man’s own essence projected
into a being called God
○ he claimed that man could liberate himself by discovering this, and that
such liberation is the role of philosophical critique
■ Marx rejected this: man is no abstract being outside
society, and hence cannot liberate himself in the realm of ideas/essences -
liberation consists in destroying the social world that produces the illusion
● so the ieological inversion responds to
and derives from a real inversion
● At this stage Marx still had a fairly idealist conception of the relationship between theory
and practice - revolution in practice is seen as founded in the insights of philosophical critique
