Customer Reviews

Ideology and False Consciousness: Marx and His Historical Progenitors (S U N Y Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences)

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This text is both a lucid and thoroughly reasoned examination of Marx's concept of ideology as false consciousness. More than just a book about Karl Marx, this text examines how various philosophers (from Bacon and the French Enlightenment---to Hegel and Feuerbach) have viewed false consciouness---and then demonstrates how they then influenced Marx and Engles's view of ideology and false consciousness. I found the book very readable and informative---and unlike most philosophy texts---not bogged down in dogma and awkward language. This book reads nicely---the language and ideas flow easily. The author has clearly researched his subject and has a good grasp on what it is that he hopes to convey through his book. I would reccomend this book to not only students of philosophy---but those of history, social science, economy, culture studies, and/or anyone who wishes to have a better understanding of the history of ideological thought and acquire a more thorough understanding of the ways in which we "falsely" believe. The study of class struggles and divisions is more previlant today than ever.