Ideology matters: European political philosophy in pursuit of ideological concept of the XXI century

Abstract

Marxist understanding of ideology as a “false consciousness” should be recognized as most influential (in retrospective assessment) among classical theories of ideology of the XIX and XX centuries. The problem of overcoming this understanding substantiates current situation of distrust of the institution of ideology itself. The goal of this research consists in demonstration of fundamental novelty of certain methods of formation of the renewed political ideology that replace Marxist ideology. The establishing new perspective to some extent originates with the political and philosophical classics of the XX century. The starting point of this research is the fact that since the middle of the previous century, the ideology was perceived as one of the most problematic fields of the Western European political thought. The author examines the theoretical-methodological approaches of M. Foucault, enhanced with the method of morphological analysis. Applicable to the problem of modernization of ideology, the goal traced by Foucault lied in determination of the historically specific “discourse order” opposed to neoliberal polymorphism as the political “art of governance” (“the birth of biopolitics”). This approach suggests following the principle of self-criticism in philosophical cognition of ideology alongside other principles. Within the cognitive framework of political philosophy, it manifests as a solution, speaking of the “political”, going into the field of philosophical concepts from the established language of political science to where it is required by the task for describing “regime of the truth”.