The concept of Ideology
Jorge Larrain
Lecturer in Sociology, University of Birmingham
As Professor Tom Bottomore remarks in his foreword to this important new work on the concept of ideology: There has long been a need for a more comprehensive study, and this need is now handsomely satisfied by Dr Larrain in the present book. He provides, in the first place, a clear and well-documented account of the historical development of the concept through diverse formulations, in terms of four basic questions : namely. whether ideology is conceived negatively (as ‘false consciousness’) or positively (as a ‘world-view’ expressing the values of a particular social group) : whether it is regarded as a subjective, psychological phenomenon or an objective, social one; whether it is seen as a specific element in the ‘superstructure’ of society or as identical with the whole sphere of culture; and finally, how ideology is related to, and differentiated from, science.
‘But the book offers a great deal more than a well-ordered intellectual history admirably though that aspect is handled. Within his historical framework Dr Larrain examines, in thorough and searching manner, the coherence and value of some of the most important conceptions of ideology, from Mannheim to the modern structuralists.
‘This book will become, I believe, an indispensable source of reference for all those concerned with the problem of ideology. Still more, Dr Larrain’s discussion in the concluding chapter, where he takes up the vexed question of the demarcation of science from ideology, and considers more general aspects of the social location of science, will suggest some new directions in the analysis of cultural phenomena.’