Critical Social Theory
“[It] is not the consciousness of men that determines
their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that
determines their consciousness”
Marx, ‘Preface’ (1859).
Marx’s new approach
 Marx tells us: “The mode of production of material
life conditions the social, political and intellectual
life process in general. It is not the consciousness
of men that determines their being, but, on the
contrary, their social being that determines their
consciousness” (“Preface” 45)
 What does “it is not the consciousness of men that
determines their being, but, on the contrary, their
social being that determines their consciousness”
mean?
2
Great chain of being
 Great chain of
being—
medieval
conception of
the order of the
universe.
 What does the
phrase
suggest?
3
Marx and ideology
 The concepts used in reasoning for any
particular period, say about the good life, could
be described as an ideology
 My claim is that “social being that determines
their consciousness” is one (perhaps ‘neutral’)
description of ideology, but as we will see Marx
also describes ideology in another way
(perhaps in a ‘political’ sense).
 What is ‘ideology’?
4
Ideology: the very term
 Coined in 1796 by Destutt,
Comte de Tracy.
 ‘Ideology’ was to be a science
of ideas—the process by which
the mind formed thoughts.
 This kind of study could reveal
how erroneous beliefs are
formed about human nature,
say, which would be helpful in
maintaining social order.
 Destutt, Comte
de Tracy (17541836)
5
Marx and ideology
 Marx appropriated the term. His project, however, is to
subject ideology—the consciousness of his period—to
criticism.
 But by ‘criticism’, Marx does not mean the philosophical
criticism that we saw in Kant—“the consciousness of
men that determines their being”
 He tells us: “Just as our opinion of an individual is not
based on what he thinks of himself, so can we not judge
of such a period … by its own consciousness. This
consciousness must be explained … from the
contradictions of material life” (‘Preface’ 45).
6
Marx and ideology
 For any particular period, it is the material
conditions—such as the level of technology and
the relations of production—that determine how
we perceive ourselves and our relations to one
another, i.e. our consciousness.
 Consider again the example of a ‘great chain of
being’. Do the notion of a ‘great chain of being’
make sense today? Why or why not?
7
Marx and ideology
 Marx tells us that ideological structures are not
static; they change:
 “At a certain stage of their development, the
material productive forces of society come in
conflict with the existing relations of
productions, or—what is but a legal expression
for the same thing—with the property relations
within which they have been at work hitherto”
(‘Preface’ 45)
8
Marx and ideology
 “No social order ever perishes before all the productive
forces for which there is room in it have developed; and
new, higher relations of production never appear before
the material conditions of their existence have matured in
the womb of the old society itself. … In broad outlines
Asiatic, ancient, feudal and modern bourgeois modes of
production can be designated as progressive epochs in
the economic formation of society. The bourgeois
relations of production are the last antagonistic form of
the social process of production—antagonistic not in the
sense of individual antagonism, but of one arising from
the social conditions of life of [individuals]” (‘Preface’ 46)
9
Marx and Ideology
 First conception of ideology: “The mode of
production of material life conditions the social,
political and intellectual life process in general. It
is not the consciousness of men that determines
their being, but, on the contrary, their social being
that determines their consciousness” (‘Preface’
45). It is the mode of production that directs
intellectual life.
10
Marx and Ideology
 2nd conception: “The ideas of the ruling class are in every
epoch the ruling ideas; i.e., the class which is the ruling
material force of society is at the same time its ruling
intellectual force. The class which has the means of
material production at its disposal, consequently also
enjoys the means of mental production, so that the ideas
of those who lack the means of mental production are on
the whole subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more
than the ideal expression of the dominant material
relations. … The individuals composing the ruling class
possess among other things consciousness, and
therefore think.” (The German Ideology 47)
11
Marx and Engels: ideology
 Marx and Engels’ examples:
 (1) separation of powers, and (2) the concepts
of honour and loyalty during the period where
aristocracies reigned.
 Each ruling class presents “its interests as the
common interest of all the members of society”
(48).
12
Marx and Engels: ideology
 The view of ideology as “the ideas of the ruling
class are in every epoch the ruling ideas” makes
one presupposition:
 1) the ruling class also “controls the means of
mental production … The individuals composing
the ruling class possess among other things
consciousness, and therefore think” (47)
 How plausible is this claim? Is it the case that
only those in the ruling class think?
13
The end of ideology
 Recall that Marx held that ideological forms are
not static; they change owing to contradictions in
productive forces and relations of productions.
Does this series of ideological forms end?
 “This whole appearance, that the rule of a certain
class is only the rule of certain ideas, comes to a
natural end, of course, as soon as class rule in
general ceases to be the form in which society is
organized” (49)
14
Two conceptions of ideology
 “The mode of production
of material life conditions
the social, political and
intellectual life process in
general. It is not the
consciousness of men
that determines their
being, but, on the
contrary, their social being
that determines their
consciousness” (‘Preface’
45)
 “The ideas of the ruling
class are in every epoch
the ruling ideas … [Each
ruling class] present its
interests as the common
interest of all the
members of society”
(German Ideology 4748).
15
Marx and Engels: ideology
 Both conception share the following features:
 1) “The premises from which we start are not
arbitrary; they are no dogmas … They are the
real individuals, their actions and their
material conditions of life. … The first fact to
be established, then, is the physical
organization of these individuals” (German
Ideology 107)
 What is the significance of this starting point
for analysis compared with that of Kant and
other philosophers?
16
Marx and Engels: ideology
 The starting point for Marx’s analysis is with the
given material conditions (natural bases) and
work through the modifications resulting from
man’s actions.
 Contrast with the philosophical analyses offered
by Marx and Engels’ contemporaries:
 “In direct contrast to German Philosophy, which
descends from heaven to earth, here one
ascends from earth to heaven. … One does not
set out from what men say, imagine or conceive
nor from man as he is … imagined” (111-112)
17
Marx and Engels: ideology
 2) Both conception of ideology are committed to
the view that it is the material base that
conditions the superstructure.
 Superstructure (legal, political, religious)
↑
 Base (relations of production)
18
Marx and Engels: ideology
 In each epoch, beliefs—the superstructure—appear
natural. But ideology (understood as the ideas of the
ruling class) is a system of beliefs that systematically
misrepresent social reality for the non-ruling classes.
 How do religion and legal systems work as an ideology?
 If it is the case that for each historical period, there is one
set of dominant beliefs, can we ever get to the real
world?
 How does it affect the autonomy of individuals?
19