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This is the first collection to bring together leading scholars from diverse disciplines to offer a variety of perspectives on ideology and its analysis, emphasizing the input of different intellectual and scholarly traditions to the meaning of ideology. The articles explore commonalities in the use and understanding of ideology as well as delineating constructive differences in its interpretation, while illuminating the changes that the concept of ideology, as well as the practices it signifies, has undergone in recent years. Contributions are included from the fields of political theory, history, literature, political science, cultural studies, post-Marxism, discourse analysis, language studies, law, and sociology. The Meaning of Ideology advances our understanding of the intricacy and relevance of ideology, and offers the latest theories and insights that currently inform scholarship on the subject. Ideology emerges through the pages of this collection more strongly than ever as a major tool of understanding political language and as a durable and normal phenomenon that is inherent in the many ways we conceive the world around us. This book was previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Political Ideologies and will be of interest to students of political ideologies and political and social theory.
First published in 1980. Of all the concepts deployed in the study of politics the application of the concept of ideology is by far the least precise. Those who have sought to clarify its meaning have concluded that ideology is not an independent constituent of political life and indispensable to an adequate representation of the form of political association; but, rather, a kind of epiphenomenal, parasitic and irrational thought that misguides the unfortunate, ignorant or confused in the pursuit of the unobtainable. The Form of Ideology attempts to demonstrate that this view is wholly mistaken. It offers students an understanding of ideology free from the conceptual confusion involved in the belief that ideology is in any sense a theory that can be put into practice. In addition, it argues that ideology is not a defective theory of politics, because, properly understood, ideology is not theoretical understanding of the world at all. It is not the product of any kind of investigation yielding information. The Form of Ideology permits beliefs in ideological claims, not proof of ideological assertions. It affords political inspiration and aspirations rather than judgement and knowledge. If the argument in this book succeeds in demonstrating the truth of this conclusion then the study of politics must take a completely new direction. The first three chapters explore the grounds for the methodological break the group has made with previous investigations and offer a critique of some current misconceptions; the remaining three chapters mark out the limits of the intelligibility of ideology within the context of political thought and life following the direction indicated by the previous three. The book’s concern will be of central interest to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses on ideology, the history of political thought, political theory and political movements in departments of political science, sociology, philosophy and history; it is unique in that it offers an account of the form of ideological understanding seen as a mode of thought in its own right.
In this book J. M. Balkin offers a strikingly original theory of cultural evolution, a theory that explains shared understandings, disagreement, and diversity within cultures. Drawing on many fields of study--including anthropology, evolutionary theory, cognitive science, linguistics, sociology, political theory, philosophy, social psychology, and law--the author explores how cultures grow and spread, how shared understandings arise, and how people of different cultures can understand and evaluate each other's views. Cultural evolution occurs through the transmission of cultural information and know-how--cultural software--in human minds, Balkin says. Individuals embody cultural software and spread it to others through communication and social learning. Ideology, the author contends, is neither a special nor a pathological form of thought but an ordinary product of the evolution of cultural software. Because cultural understanding is a patchwork of older imperfect tools that are continually adapted to solve new problems, human understanding is partly adequate and partly inadequate to the pursuit of justice. Balkin presents numerous examples that illuminate the sources of ideological effects and their contributions to injustice. He also enters the current debate over multiculturalism, applying his theory to problems of mutual understanding between people who hold different worldviews. He argues that cultural understanding presupposes transcendent ideals and shows how both ideological analysis of others and ideological self-criticism are possible.
This book enables the reader to recognize public expressions of an ideology, thereby avoiding gullibility and the consequences of ignorance. A Marxist-Freudian orientation is adopted. This book also discusses the possibility of escaping ideology and how it differs from science.
Congress is crippled by ideological conflict. The political parties are more polarized today than at any time since the Civil War. Americans disagree, fiercely, about just about everything, from terrorism and national security, to taxes and government spending, to immigration and gay marriage. Well, American elites disagree fiercely. But average Americans do not. This, at least, was the position staked out by Philip Converse in his famous essay on belief systems, which drew on surveys carried out during the Eisenhower Era to conclude that most Americans were innocent of ideology. In Neither Liberal nor Conservative, Donald Kinder and Nathan Kalmoe argue that ideological innocence applies nearly as well to the current state of American public opinion. Real liberals and real conservatives are found in impressive numbers only among those who are deeply engaged in political life. The ideological battles between American political elites show up as scattered skirmishes in the general public, if they show up at all. If ideology is out of reach for all but a few who are deeply and seriously engaged in political life, how do Americans decide whom to elect president; whether affirmative action is good or bad? Kinder and Kalmoe offer a persuasive group-centered answer. Political preferences arise less from ideological differences than from the attachments and antagonisms of group life.
Nancy Love’s concise yet complete volume aims to inform students of their choices among political values. By exploring the assumptions of various ideologies and comparing their positions, students begin to understand political alternatives to be able to choose among them—in essence, they learn to think democratically. Offering historical and analytic context for the selections in her companion reader, Dogmas and Dreams, Love challenges students to consider the various ways ideological frameworks shape political actions. Reframing her approach in this second edition, Love examines how traditional left/right ideologies—liberalism and conservatism, socialism and fascism—are shifting to adapt to new political realities in an ever turbulent, post-9/11 world. She also discusses why alternative ideologies—feminism, environmentalism, fundamentalism, and globalization—may better convey our global political future. While pushing the boundaries of the left/right political spectrum, she looks at how grassroots social movements offer alternative ways to view ideological differences, from cluster-concepts to micro-discourses, and even a planetary galaxy. Expanded coverage includes: a new chapter on nationalism and globalization, which examines the work of Samuel Huntington, Kenichi Ohmae, Benjamin Barber, and many more, to explore fundamentalism in Islamic politics increased coverage of global environmental politics, including Shiva’s Stolen Harvest and Kelly’s Thinking Green, examining the relationships between developed and developing countries fresh material on socialist politics post-1989 and the rise of neo-fascist movements in the United States and Europe, including analysis of Hayden and Flacks’ "The Port Huron Statement at 40" and Bob Moser’s "The Age of Rage" an updated feminism chapter that considers the impact of third-wave, post-colonial, and so-called "power" feminists and incorporates new analysis of Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Mohanty’s Under Western Eyes Revisited
Underpinned by the work of major thinkers such as Marx, Locke, Weber, Hobbes and Foucault, the first half of the book looks at political concepts including: the state and sovereignty; the nation; democracy; representation and legitimacy; freedom; equiality and rights; obligation; and citizenship. There is also a specific chapter which addresses the role of ideology in the shaping of politics and society. The second half of the book addresses traditional theoretical subjects such as socialism, Marxism and nationalism, before moving on to more contemporary movements such as environmentalism, ecologism and feminism.
Ideologies play a crucial role in the way the political world is shaped. Using the political experience of Britain, France, Germany, and the USA, this work examines political ideologies such as liberalism, conservatism, feminism and green politics.
What is ideology, and what is the scope of its influence? Are all political doctrines ideological? Is there such a thing as a non-political ideology? Can these questions be answered conclusively, and if so by what means? Different conceptions and theories of ideology offer a variety of contradictory answers, resulting in general muddle and confusion. This powerful and original book argues that philosophy alone can give clear and decisive answers to such questions. Its rigorous logical analysis reveals ideology to be a distinctive form of thought with its own particular vocabulary and structure. It is these logical features that define ideology, and not any allegedly necessary connection with social class or fanaticism or even politics. What ideology does necessarily connect with is human action and its moral justification. Understanding the nature of ideological belief goes to the heart of the relationship between theory and practice, and consequently to the way in which human beings understand themselves. The Logic of Political Belief is essential reading for those concerned with political theory, moral philosophy and the social sciences in general. Its outstanding clarity and force of argument will also commend it to all those with an interest in wider political, social and human issues. Contents: Chapter One: Ideology and Confusion; Ideology and Political Theory; Ideology and Political Science; Ideology and Philosophy; Chapter Two: Understanding, Knowledge, and Ideological Concepts; Forms of Understanding and Kinds of Knowledge; Practice and Theory; The Vocabulary of Political Belief; Chapter Three: Ideology, Science, and Theory; Ideology as Bad Science: Karl Popper; Science as Ideology: Thomas Kuhn; The Nature of Ideological Theory; Chapter Four: Ideology and Ethics; The Nature of Ordinary Morality; Morality and Ethical Belief; Ideology and Religion; Chapter Five: Human Nature and the Structure of Ideology; Ideological and Non-Ideological Conceptions of Man; The Struct
The term "ideology" can cover almost any set of ideas, but its power to bewitch political activists results from its strange logic: part philosophy, part science, part spiritual revelation, all tied together in leading to a remarkable paradox--that the modern Western world, beneath its liberal appearance, is actually the most systematically oppressive system of despotism the world has ever seen. Alien Powers: The Pure Theory of Ideology takes this complex intellectual construction apart, analyzing its logical, rhetorical, and psychological devices and thus opening it up to critical analysis. Ideologists assert that our lives are governed by a hidden system. Minogue traces this notion to Karl Marx who taught intellectuals the philosophical, scientific, moral, and religious moves of the ideological game. The believer would find in these ideas an endless source of new liberating discoveries about the meaning of life, and also the grand satisfaction of struggling to overcome oppression. Minogue notes that while the patterns of ideological thought were consistent, there was little agreement on who the oppressor actually was. Marx said it was the bourgeoisie, but others found the oppressor to be males, governments, imperialists, the white race, or the worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Ideological excitement created turmoil in the twentieth century, but the defeat of the more violent and vicious ideologies--Nazism after 1945 and Communism after 1989--left the passion for social perfection as vibrant as ever. Activist intellectuals still seek to "see through" the life we lead. The positive goals of utopia may for the moment have faded, but the ideological hatred of modernity has remained, and much of our intellectual life has degenerated into a muddled and dogmatic skepticism. For Minogue, the complex task of "demystifying" the "demystifiers" requires that we should discover how ideology works. It must join together each of its complex strands of thought in order to understand the remarkable power of the whole.