ASTK12132U Aspects of Ideology: science, anti-science, vision, discourse

Volume 2013/2014
Content

When we know that there are social conditions for what people believe, how can we not take what people believe as merely biased or even false – or, for that matter, what we ourselves believe?

The puzzles raised behind the notion of ideology need to be taken into account for a full picture of belief, knowledge, science, policy, political vision, or values.  The aim of the course is to specify the variety hidden beneath the concept of ‘ideology’ and to measure the challenge that it poses to any simplistic conception of belief. 

The course will examine, in rough historical order, the many roles that the concept of ‘ideology’ has fulfilled, and explore how it is a necessary foil to any epistemology.  Meanings of ‘ideology’ include: a science of public knowledge; an insight in anthropology; a position tantamount to false, or deceptive knowledge; a integral part political science; a negative tests of world-views; an inspiration to orient us to the future; a barrier to emancipation; a dimension of culture, discourse, power, social position or even identity. 

Programme of classes

1.Destutt de Tracy & therevolutionary idea of a new science of opinion
2.Ideologies’ place within culture
3.Modern political ideologies
4.Marx’s concept as a standpoint for social critique
5.Ideologies, political visions, utopias
6. ‘Dominant’ ideologies
7.Debate on ideology v. science I: Popper and liberal pluralism
8.Debate on ideology v. science II: Althusser and scientific Marxism
9.The ‘morphology’ of ideologies
10.Discourse as power
11.Discourse as structured social difference
12.The invention of new political subjectivities
13.Thought in the maze of postmodernism
14.Revision & students presentations
Learning Outcome

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

  1. Explain, in your own words, what difficulties and paradoxes thinking about ideology raises.
  2. Summarize briefly a selection of classic writers on the topic
  3. Demonstrate a capacity to handle the concept of ideology and its cognates, such as ideas, beliefs, values, knowledge. 
  4. Illustrate the use of the concept, or work through a case study. 

I have divided the reading list in two: texts that are, or have been significant contributions in their own right to the debates around ideology, and texts which contain surveys of others’ use of the concept of ideology as well as being contributions in their own right.

For each week of study there will be suggested pages for you to read, though you are welcome to read more pages, suggest further texts, or to include pages from the listed texts and others in your own list for the exam.  Literature lists for the exam need my approval.

Each text is marked with a code to indicate where you can find it: SS = on the semester shelf in the Social Science Faculty Library; DN = can be downloaded from the course Absalon page; BK = notified to the campus bookshop as a likely purchase; BK  = notified to the campus bookshop as a possible enquiry from students. [At the time of writing (25/7/13), these arrangement is not confirmed.]

Original texts

  • Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and Symbolic Power, Thompson, John B., G. Raymond and M. Adamson, tr., Cambridge: Polity.  SS BK
  • Destutt de Tracy, Antoine (1817) “Abstract of Analytical Table” of A Treatise on Political Economy, to which is prefixed a supplement to a preceding work on the understanding, of Elements of Ideology, trans. Thomas Jefferson, Georgetown: DC, reprinted New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1970 – SS
  • Foucault, M. (1986) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, ed., Gordon, Colin SS BK
  • Freeden, Michael. 1996. Ideologies and Political Theory. Oxford: Clarendon.   SS BK
  • Geertz, Clifford (1993) "Ideology as a Cultural System", in Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: selected essays in New York: Basic Books   SS
  • Gramsci, Antonio (1971) Prison Notebooks, ed. Q. Hoare & P. Nowell-Smith, London: Lawrence & Wishart    SS BK
  • Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London: Verso.    SS BK
  • Lash, S. (2002) Critique of Information, London: Sage   SS BK
  • Mannheim, Karl (1960) Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge, Routledge, first published 1936   SS BK
  • Marx, Karl & Friedrich Engels (1968) The German Ideology. Many editions   SS
  • Popper, Karl (1960) The Poverty of Historicism, London: Routledge  SS
  • Seliger, M. (1976) Ideology and Politics, New York: The Free Press SS

Survey texts – which also have their own argument

  • Eagleton, T. (2007). Ideology: An Introduction. London: Verso.   SS BK
  • Freeden, Michael (2003) Ideology: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press   SS BK
  • Heywood, Andrew (2003) Political Ideologies: An Introduction, Basingstoke: Palgrave     SS BK
  • Kennedy, Emmet, (1979) “’Ideology’ from Destutt de Tracy to Marx, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 40, No. 3. (Jul. - Sep.), pp. 353-368  DN
  • Norval, A. J. (2000). "Review Article: The Things we do with Words - Contemporary Approaches to the Analysis of Ideology." British Journal of Political Science 30: 313 - 346.   DN
  • Ricoeur, P. (1986) Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, New York: Columbia University Press    SS  BK
  • Zizek, S., ed. (1995). Mapping Ideology. London: Verso.   SS  BK
Lectures and class discussions.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Exam
  • 79
  • Preparation
  • 168
  • Total
  • 275
Credit
10 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination
An oral exam based on a synopsis written by the student
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course’s goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
     
  • Grade 7 given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
     
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner