The ideological and sociological interpretation of intellectual phenomena* 1

Abstract

The meaning of 'ideological' is a way of looking at the ideas, in contrast to the sociological, and the idea considers the both 'from within' and from the 'existence'. Unlike natural phenomena, intellectual phenomena do not become visible in different cross-sections but offer us and has the different possibilities by which they are intellectually penetrated. In order to find the most comprehensive principle of classification, the authors begins with the contrast that sketched by Marx, that between the ideological and the sociological consideration of cultural phenomena and that in an enlarged sense of their intrinsic and their extrinsic interpretation. This chapter discusses the kinds of interpretations that try to understand and interpret the phenomenon by reference to the context of life and experience of: an individual; and a historical social group. It is characterised by the interpretation of the intellectual phenomenon in terms of an existence postulated outside the sphere of the intrinsic meaning of that phenomenon.