What is ideology actually?
In daily life, during conversation, at school, on television, on the Internet, in the newspaper, etc. We come across many concepts everywhere. Although we use these concepts quite a lot in daily speech, we do not know exactly what these concepts mean. Our emotion is the result of an experience independent of the concept, that the concepts have positive or negative meanings, sometimes arousing emotions such as happiness and sometimes fear. One of these concepts is the concept of ideology. When the adventure of ideology is examined from a historical perspective, everything is tried to be explained through it and the source of all problems is tried to be attributed to this concept. This poses a problem. For this reason, it immediately causes the definition of this concept and the explanation of this concept in depth. Thus, the aim of eliminating the question marks in the minds of our esteemed readers is tried to be realized.
Ideology is a concept defined as a worldview in its most general form. Many different definitions have been made on this concept. From these definitions, you can reach different sets of information about this concept. A worldview, science of ideas, ideals is defined as a set of thoughts used to direct the behavior of individuals or institutions. It is a concept that takes itself as a subject in the field of politics, philosophy, religion and values. When examined in complex life, the concept of ideology is a concept that explains how society works, what is the role of individuals in society, and which is the best path to follow in complexity.
Contrary to popular belief, ideology is not defined as a simple set of political assumptions. It is a concept that helps us to make sense of political and social life. It is a concept that gives the map of the society and enables us to act within the society. As it is thought, ideologies play a role not only in the formation of group identities, but also in the shaping of individual identities. Ideologies are concepts formed as a result of philosophical assumptions produced by people. It is not built spontaneously, but on the basis of a philosophical, social and political past behind it. It tries to explain the past, present and future in a way that is consistent with each other. Ideologies generally motivate communities towards a common goal.
Ideology is a word of French origin. It means thoughts that are powerful enough to influence the behavior of a person or institution(s). In terms of meaning, ideology means a way of thinking, a way of life, a set of political ideas, a political doctrine, an economic system, a system of ideas that legitimizes a social action, a belief system, and more. According to scientist Allard, it is defined as a system that defines the goals of the thoughts and actions of individuals and how to achieve these goals, and determines the quality of social and physical realities.
The teacher of the teachers, the valuable scientist Şerif Mardin, also made a definition of ideologies instead of defining ideology. According to Mardin, ideologies are a concept that undertakes the function of ensuring the protection of worldview in order to give a new world of meaning to a society by using the principles of transferring and protecting social, political and historical symbols.
There is a reason behind making such different definitions about ideology. The best scientist to explain the reason for this is known as Foucault. According to Foucault, the reason for these differences is that ideology is a concept open to interpretation. Due to this feature, it undergoes a meaning change by gaining different meaning contents according to different individuals, thinkers, and segments of society. Therefore, it deals with different features from each other. There is no valid standard definition of ideology in the world of social sciences. However, it is defined specifically by individuals or disciplines. It does not carry a meaning content that is generally accepted by everyone.
Antoine Destutt de Tracy is the most well-known of the commentators on ideology. Tracy is one of the Enlightenment philosophers. He was the first to define this concept as the science of thought. Tracy defined this concept as the science of the human mind. Tracy defined this concept as a science that studies human thought, the laws of thought and the resources of thought. With this definition, Tracy sees ideology as the supreme of all sciences. In short, according to this interpretation, we can define ideology as the science of scientific thought.
After Tracy's comments, Karl Marx also commented on this subject. Marx relates ideology to social infrastructure. While Marx's infrastructure covers everything related to the economy, the superstructure includes everything outside the economy (religion, language, culture, family, science…). Marx defends the understanding of historical materialism. According to this understanding, thought does not determine material reality. On the contrary, the understanding of material reality determines thought.
