Social Ideology

Also known as “ideology” or “formation of ideas”. It is an ideological system that systematically and consciously reflects the economic foundation and political system of a certain society, and is a general overview of the entire intellectual life of society and its process. Social ideology is an important component part of the superstructure, including the dominant political ideas, juridical ideas, morality, literature, art, religion, philosophy and most of the social sciences, etc.

The English word “ideology” stems from the Greek word idea (thought or idea) and logos (theory or reason), meaning the doctrine of ideas or science of ideas. In the works of Marx and Engels, the term ideology first appeared in The Holy Family, and was concretely elaborated in The German Ideology. Marx pointed out that ideology is a unique phenomenon of class society, and that antagonistic relations of production let “in all ideology men and their circumstances appear upside-down as in a camera obscura”. He also pointed out that the ruling class uses ideology to put a good color on its rule on the one hand, and as a means of rule, on the other. “The state presents itself to us as the first ideological power over human beings.” “But once the state has become an independent power vis-à-vis society, it immediately produces a further ideology.” “Still higher ideologies, that is, such as are still further removed from the material, economic foundation, take the form of philosophy and religion.” “Every ideology, however, once it has arisen, develops in connection with the given concept-material, and develops this material further; otherwise it would not be an ideology, that is, occupation with thoughts as with independent entities, developing independently and subject only to their own laws.” However, in addition to using the concept of ideology in a pejorative sense, Marx chiefly studied and explained the connotation of social consciousness and ideology and various forms of consciousness with the viewpoint and method of historical materialism, and treated it as an important category of historical materialism corresponding to economic foundation. In 1859, in Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Marx dealt with historical materialism regarding the dialectical relation between ideology and economic foundation. He advocated that ideology is the reflection of the economic foundation and political system of the total composition of the relations of production, and at the same time, it reacts on that economic foundation and political system. He held that ideology is a reflection of, and at the same time a reaction upon, the economic foundation and political system constituted by the sum total of the relations of production. Ideology encompasses the juridical, political, religious, artistic, philosophical and other forms of consciousness in the social sciences. In Lenin’s works, the word “ideology” has a broader meaning, referring both to practical consciousness and ideological systems in general. He also put forth concepts such as “scientific ideology” and “socialist ideology”. In the theoretical system of Marxism, ideology and science are unified, that is to say, Marxism is both a scientific truth and the ideology of the proletariat. After the World War II, “theories of ideology” have flourished in the West. Most of the concepts of ideology in modern Western philosophy cater to the claims of positivism. The concept of ideology is determined as a spirit that belongs to the realm of values, as distinct from science and truth. They hold that Marxism is not a science but an ideology, thereby denying its scientificity.

Social ideologies are a product of the development of human society to a certain stage. A certain social ideology is the reflection of a certain social being, and it changes sooner or later with the change of social being. Moreover, social ideologies also have a relative independence and a great dynamic effect on social development; they reflect and react upon the economic foundation of society, each of them has its unique form and particular laws, and has a historical inheritance. However, the ideological development is not always consistent and even with the development of the economic foundation, and sometimes economically backward countries surpass economically more developed countries in the ideological sphere.

Social ideology is a phenomenon peculiar to class society. In class society, social ideologies have a distinctive class nature, and their existence and changes depend on the existence of classes, and they will wither away with the withering-away of class society. Ideologies of different classes represent the interests of different classes, reflect the aspirations and demands of different classes, and serve the political rule of a specific class or social group; historically there are the ideologies of the landlord class, the bourgeoisie and the working class. In class society, struggles in the ideological sphere is also an objective existence. In China, the mainstream ideology is Marxism, Sinicized Marxism, and upholding the Four Cardinal Principles and opposing bourgeois liberalization are long-term tasks in the ideological sphere.