False consciousness
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InMarxist theory,false consciousnessis a term describing the ways in whichmaterial,ideological,andinstitutionalprocesses are said to mislead members of theproletariatand otherclassactors withincapitalist societies,concealing theexploitationandinequalityintrinsic to the social relations between classes. According to Marxists, false consciousness legitimizes the existence of different social classes.[1]
Origin of terminology[edit]
False consciousness is consciousness which is incorrect and misaligned from reality.[2]In a Marxist worldview, false consciousness is a serious impediment to human progress.[2]Thus, correcting false consciousness is a major focus ofdialectical materialism.[2]
Friedrich Engels(1820–1895) used the term "false consciousness" in an 1893 letter toFranz Mehringto describe the mindset of a subordinate class that willingly adopts the ideology of theruling class.[3][4][5]Engels dubs this consciousness "false" because members of the class are supporting goals that do not benefit them. In the letter, Engels uses the term false consciousness interchangeably with the term ideology.[2]
"Consciousness", in this context, reflects a class's ability to politically identify and assert its will. The subordinate class is conscious if it plays a major role in society and can assert its will due to being sufficiently unified in ideas and action.
Although the term false consciousness was not coined until after Marx's death, the concept it refers to appears throughout the earlier writing of Marx and Engels.[6]For example, inThe Holy Family,Marx describes how communist workers are able to break out of the false consciousness prevalent under capitalism:[2]
They (the communist workers) are most painfully aware of the difference between being and thinking, between consciousness and life. They know that property, capital, money, wage-labor and the like are no ideal figments of the brain but very practical, very objective products of their self-estrangement.
Later development[edit]
Marshall I. Pomer has argued that members of the proletariat disregard the true nature of class relations because of their belief in the probability or possibility ofupward mobility.[5][7]Such a belief or something like it is said to be required in economics with itspresumption of rational agency;otherwisewage laborerswould not be the conscious supporters of social relations antithetical to their own interests, violating that presumption.[8]
Hungarian philosopherGyörgy Lukácsdiscussed the concept of false consciousness in his 1923 bookHistory and Class Consciousness.The concept was further developed by German philosopherHerbert Marcuseand by French philosopherHenri Lefebvre.[1]
Since the late 20th century, the term false consciousness has been used in a non-Marxian context, specifically in relation to oppression based on sexual orientation, gender, race and ethnicity.[1]
Cultural hegemony[edit]
The Italian Marxist theoristAntonio Gramscideveloped the concept ofcultural hegemony,the process within capitalist societies by which the ruling classes create particular norms, values, and stigmas, amounting to a culture in which their continued dominance is considered beneficial.[9]
Structuralism[edit]
During the late 1960s and 1970s, the philosophical and anthropological school ofstructuralismbegan to gain popularity among academics and public intellectuals, focusing on interpreting human culture in terms of underlying structures such as symbolic, linguistic, and ideological perspectives. Marxist philosopherLouis Althusserpopularized his structuralist interpretation of false consciousness, theIdeological State Apparatus.Structuralism influenced Althusser's interpretation of false consciousness, which focuses on the institutions of the capitalist state—particularly those of public education—which enforce an ideological system favoring obedience, conformity and submissiveness.[10]
See also[edit]
- Capitalist realism
- Character mask
- Class consciousness
- Cognitive dissonance
- Consciousness raising
- Cultural hegemony
- Culture industry
- Dominant ideology
- "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses"
- Introspection illusion
- Karl Marx's theory of alienation
- Political consciousness
- Propaganda model
- Spectacle
- System justification
- Turkeys voting for Christmas
- Hermeneutics of suspicion
References[edit]
- ^abc"False consciousness".Encyclopædia Britannica.Retrieved2023-07-28.
- ^abcdeMinistry of Education and Training (Vietnam) (2023).Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism.Vol. 1. Translated by Nguyen, Luna. Banyan House Punlishing. p. 231.ISBN9798987931608.
- ^Engels, Friedrich(1949). "Letter to F. Mehring".Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Selected Works in Two Volumes, Volume II.Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House. p. 451.
Ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive forces impelling him remain unknown to him; otherwise it simply would not be an ideological process.
- ^Engels, Friedrich(1893).Engels to Franz Mehring.
- ^abLukács, Georg(1967).History & Class Consciousness.London: Merlin Press.ISBN978-0850361971.
- ^Ministry of Education and Training (Vietnam) (2023).Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism.Vol. 1. Translated by Nguyen, Luna. Banyan House Punlishing. p. 30.ISBN9798987931608.
- ^Marshall I. Pomer (October 1984). "Upward Mobility of Low-Paid Workers: A Multivariate Model for Occupational Changers".Sociological Perspectives.27(4): 427–442.doi:10.2307/1389035.ISSN0731-1214.JSTOR1389035.S2CID147390452.
- ^This phenomenon is most accentuated in the United States, and has given rise to what some European Marxists[who?]refer to as "classtransference"[1].
- ^Gramsci, Antonio (2010).Selections from Prison Notebooks.United States of America: International Publishers. p. 488.
- ^Althusser, Louis (1971).Lenin and Other Essays.United States of America: Monthly Review Press.
External links[edit]
- Joseph McCarney (2005).Ideology and False Consciousness.