Ideology and revolutionary thought
Alienation; Awareness; Ideology; Marxism.
The word “ideology” was created at the end of the eighteenth century by the French philosopher Destutt de Tracy and initially referred to the study of ideas. However, in the following years, its meaning underwent changes, and when Marx and Engels learned the term, its current use already had another meaning: an abstract, metaphysical thought, which is distant from reality. It is in this sense that the two revolutionary thinkers initially began to use it in their writings. Yet, we might find in his works other meanings to the word “ideology”: illusion, inverted consciousness, false consciousness, or set of ideas, always linked to the bourgeois class, which dominates politically. This work deals with the meanings of the term “ideology” from the Marxist perspective; how it is propagated throughout society; and its relationship with institutions, thinking, and the State. Furthermore, the dialectical character of the institutions and the importance of the dispute of ideas are highlighted, being the ideas both linked to the emancipation of the working class and the end of class society a counterpoint to the dominant ideology.