Critique Of Ideology Research Articles

Realism against delegitimation

ABSTRACT Political realists exercise ideology critique to emancipate citizens from problematic beliefs concerning the legitimacy of their social order. They seek to unveil hidden conflict within apparent harmony. However, realists have so far neglected the opposite case in which erroneous beliefs delegitimise a social order, thus contributing to unrest and resentment. As a prototypical case for delegitimation, I will discuss the ‘big lie’ narrative that surrounds the 2020 presidential election in the United States. As I will argue, realist ideology critique is currently underequipped to deal with these cases. To address this shortcoming, I propose a modification to the critical realist methodology. I will argue that realists should focus on unveiling self-serving, rather than merely self-justifying, political narratives. In line with a more practice-oriented approach to ideology critique, I will further sketch some implications for liberal democratic institutions that follow from taking delegitimation seriously.

“L’Européen Sait et ne sait pas”: Frantz Fanon and Epistemologies of Ignorance

ABSTRACT This article argues that Frantz Fanon’s critique of the epistemology of the colonial situation is a complex, pluralized, epistemology of ignorance, where ignorance takes three main forms. Fanon first produces a critique of colonial ideology, in which ignorance is the product of the colonizers’ false justificatory ideology. Fanon unveils how Europeans, through human sciences such as “ethnopsychiatry” and “ethnophilosophy,” deliberately produce ignorance and devaluation of colonized subjects and colonized knowledge for purposes of domination. Second, ignorance is the unintentional result of the partial, situated, standpoint of embodied knowers. Fanon does not intend to substitute a “black truth” to white ideology. He rather insists that while truth is unattainable under colonial conditions, the affective perspective of the oppressed/colonized is a necessary constitutive part of any objective account of the world. Third, by analyzing the “Conducts of confession in North Africa,” characterized by deliberate denial, lies, and opacity as resistance mechanisms, Fanon insists that no objective knowledge is possible in a colonial situation because of the total separation, and impossible epistemic collaboration, of dominant and dominated knowers. An anticolonial politics has to focus on producing the conditions of possibility of knowledge.

Moderate realist ideology critique

AbstractRealist ideology critique (RIC) is a strand of political realism recently developed in response to concerns that realism is biased toward the status quo. RIC aims to debunk an individual's belief that a social institution is legitimate by revealing that the belief is caused by that very same institution. Despite its growing prominence, RIC has received little critical attention. In this article, I buck this trend. First, I improve on contemporary accounts of RIC by clarifying its status and the role of motivated reasoning. Second, I show that realist ideology critics face a dilemma: either their account makes deeply implausible epistemological assumptions, or they temper its epistemology at the expense of rendering it toothless. I argue for each horn in turn before revealing the dilemma to be a false one by making a novel distinction between varying strengths of RIC based on their underlying epistemological assumptions. I propose Moderate RIC as a solution: upon discovering that one reason for your belief that a social institution is legitimate is likely malignantly epistemically circular, the belief should undergo further epistemic testing. I respond to three potential objections and suggest that Moderate RIC would make a fruitful addition to political theorists' methodological toolkit.

Clickbait modernism

ABSTRACT Over recent years terms such as autofiction, postcritique and postfiction have been repurposed to designate a moment in the history of the novel, and in culture more broadly, to do with the distribution of narrative authority. These terms have also helped articulate a contemporary double bind whereby impatience with the knowingness of third-person narration meets an equal and opposite impatience with ideology critique, whose unmasking of textual or authorial ideology is itself viewed as excessively knowing. This article reconnects such a discursive predicament to the enduring problem of modernism’s relation to realism. Through a consideration of public acts of reading in James Joyce’s ‘A Painful Case’ (pub.1914), Anna Burns’s Milkman (2018) and Patricia Lockwood’s No One is Talking About This (2021), it considers the place of realism in relation to both the current impact of the internet and the historical memory of literary modernism. It argues that if we want to think about modernism’s continued relevance to contemporary cultural forms we should consider how the devices of realism imperilled at the end of the nineteenth century remain differently imperilled in today’s online world.

Utopie contra Ideologie – Ingeborg Bachmanns Textstrategien zwischen Sprachethik und literarischer Ethik

Focusing on Ingeborg Bachmann's Musil essay Utopia versus Ideology, the article outlines aspects of literary and language ethics. Both Robert Musil's and Ingeborg Bachmann's works are characterized by transdisciplinary, philosophical-literary thought centered on ethical con-cerns. The literary form is appreciated in its critique of ideologies; Bachmann, with Musil, speaks about literature as formulating open ideologies instead of closed ones, and according to both, this means: utopias. Due to the polyphony of literary texts and the linking of ethical statements to character perspectives, these statements appear in their intrinsic connection to experience and to moments of cognition – Musil's anderer Zustand – and therein as a philo-sophically precise representation of a true-to-life ethics that puts situational contexts as well as application- and motivation-problems in the foreground. In the search for the right expression, which is particularly noticeable in Musil and Bachmann, e.g. through the variation of literary modes like essay, poetry and novel as well as through the metaphoricity of speech, a language ethics manifests itself.

On the borderlands of utopia and ideology - Yuval Noah Harari through a critical lens

The world-famous popular science author, Yuval Noah Harari makes use of the technical language of the natural sciences, while engaging in social science. However, Harari?s work goes beyond the scope of anything like scientific description or scientific objectivity. ?his article claims that Harari actually presents what is already represented by modernity itself as a cultural-historical meta-narrative. Differently put, Harari exemplifies a certain ideology. The goal of this article is an exercize in ideology critique, directed at the unsaid presuppositions and implicit philosophy of history underlying Harari?s works. The cult of technological utopia is as old as the development of modernity. The first significant work in this vein was a Renaissance utopia, namely Francis Bacon?s New Atlantis. Even today, there are ?technognostic?, scientists and philosophers who assume that through technology, humans can become capable of achieving a more-than-human condition while overcoming the limits of human knowledge. The basic formula is simple: through the use of technology, humans can make themselves smarter, more virtuous, and even more moral. Authors such as Harari, who regards his own materialistic world?view as being practically synonymous with a ?scientific? and ?objective? view of the world, forget to reflect time and time again on thier own philosophical and ideological presuppositions, such as the contingent and historically overdetermined nature of their own worldview, as well as the problems and philosophical criticisms surrounding materialist epistemology.

Objectification Theory in History and Class Consciousness and Its Implications for Ideology Construction

As the pioneer and forerunner of Western Marxism, Lukács’ ideas have had a significant impact on the development of Western Marxism and even Western philosophy. History and Class Consciousness, consisting of eight essays, is the most important work of Lukács’s life. The objectification theory elaborated in the book has important implications for the critique of capitalist ideology and the reconstruction of the consciousness of the proletariat, as well as for contemporary ideological construction.

К истолкованию политической философии М.Е. Салтыкова-Щедрина

The research is to find out the basic features of Mikhail Saltykov’s political thought and to describe it in terms of political criticism of culture. The survey of academic literature on Saltykov shows that any assigning of this writer to one or other sociopolitical parties of his period is problematic: Saltykov does not align to any program of social reforms, rather exploring the thinking subject in political reality. Saltykov’s works do not imply the transmission of ideological meanings, but rather a critique of public ideology. It seems important, however, to take into account the party orientation of Saltykov’s readership: the satirist addresses to a reading community that perceives democratic and egalitarian ideas with sympathy. Analysis of Saltykov’s texts involved a number of categories of political hermeneutics — dichotomies: ideology / philosophy, classical thought / non-classical thought, exoteric / esoteric. The material for the analysis are two satirical tales: “Crucian Carp the Idealist” and “The Sensible Hare”, which are considered similar in genre to the “menippea” of F.M. Dostoevsky. In “Crucian Carp the Idealist” a conflict is revealed between classical and non-classical philosophical approaches; the esoteric plane of the text illustrates the triumph of “Machiavellian” position. In “The Sensible Hare” one can identify a dispute between an ideologist and a political philosopher; paradoxical, in the context of Saltykov’s democratic declarations, is that the ideologist`s position is occupied by the oppressed (slave), and the position of the political philosopher, that is, the subject seeking truth, is taken by the master. The paper concludes with a reflection on metaphysical contour of Saltykov’s political thought: the political theology of the Russian satirist is focused on the eschatological moment as a resolution of political conflicts.

Ideological criticism of Nikolay Karamzin in pre-revolutionary Russian thought

Ideological criticism of Nikolay Karamzin in pre-revolutionary Russian thought

Limits of Demythologization, Critique of Ideology, Postmodern Critique of Reason and Critique of the Other: Unsuccessful Moments in the History of Modern Rationality

Limits of Demythologization, Critique of Ideology, Postmodern Critique of Reason and Critique of the Other: Unsuccessful Moments in the History of Modern Rationality

From Communist Ideology to the Idea of Communism

This article approaches a potential tension in the work of Slavoj Žižek between his critique of communist ideology and his endorsement of the communist idea. The aim is to show how this endorsement, in effect, emerged out of Žižek’s sustained engagement with communist ideology. The article captures this transformation by focusing on his understanding of the notion of the idea and the ways in which ideology can be transgressed. The conclusion drawn is that in moving from a Kantian to a Hegelian notion of the idea, Žižek also leaves behind his initial Beckettian Leninism in favor of an understanding of revolution that no longer depends on the heroic act of a subject, but on the immanent logic of the communist idea.

Reconstruction of the first version Borys Liatoshynsky’s Third symphony: questions and answers (on the material of the third movement)

Relevance of the study. Borys Liatoshynsky’s Third symphony is one of the most famous compositions of Ukrainian symphonic music. The work’s first version (1951) was subjected to devastating ideological criticism, after the creation of its second version (1954) and its premiere in December 1955, it was recognized as one of the composer’s greatest creative achievements. It was traditionally considered that the second version of the Third Symphony differs from the first version only in its finale (fourth movement). In the article unknown fragments of the Symphony’s score are analysis, which were recently found in the archive of Boris Liatoshynsky’s Cabinet-Museum. These fragments appearance assumes a rethinking of the traditional approach to the issue of versions of the Third Symphony.
 The purpose of the article is to introduce new archival finds into scientific circulation and to revise the established view of the first version of Borys Liatoshynsky’s Third Symphony.
 Methods. In the article historical, comparative and textual research methods are used.
 The results and conclusions. The issue of differences between the versions of Borys Liatoshynsky’s Third symphony has been resolved in different ways in the musicological literature. N. Zaporozhec (1960) and A. Yefimenko (2016) pointed out the difference in the finals; V. Samohvalov (1981) and M. Hordiichuk (1969) wrote that the composer made changes in the third and fourth movements; Yu. Hozhyk (1997), in the most detailed study to date, stated about edits in all parts of the symphonic cycle. Found fragments from the score of the first version of the Symphony make it possible to clarify this contradictory situation.
 In a letter to R. Gliere, dated September 1, 1954, Boris Liatoshynsky described in detail the changes made for the second version of the Symphony: the first movement was almost not edited, the second was shortened, in the third (scherzo) movement composer changed the trio, and the finale was thoroughly reworked. On four pages of the score found in the composer’s Cabinet-Museum one can see the trio from the third movement of the Symphony in the first version. It was significantly less than what we know from the second version (17 bars instead of 80). After composing the new trio, Liatoshynsky made almost no changes for the score of the second version (the development section was shortened by 1 bar, the code—by 5 bars). These changes in purely immanent musical solutions have a direct impact on the general concept of the Symphony cycle, so it would be fair to note that the difference between the two versions presents two different solutions to the collision of the Third Symphony.

Cinematic Views on Critical Representations of the Economic Policies of the Democrat Party Era: Social Realist Film Initiatives in Turkish Cinema

The Democrat Party era (1950-1960) sparked radical changes in Turkey. The economic practices of the party administration during the country's administration, as well as some of the negativities it created in the political and social field, have long been on Turkey's agenda. This agenda continued even after the May 27th 1960 Military Coup removed the party from power. The Turkish Constitution of 1961, which was put into effect after the coup, created an environment suitable for looking at various problems of society from different perspectives. This environment was also reflected in the cinema, paving the way for the birth of a movement called Social Realism in Turkish Cinema. It is thought that the Social Realist Movement (1960-1965) and some of the films shot under the influence of this movement mirror the economic policies implemented during the Democrat Party era and the adverse developments it brought with it. In the study, the reflections on the harmful effects of the Democrat Party's economic policies on social realist films in Turkish Cinema are discussed. The films selected within the scope of the study were criticized through critical discourse analysis, historical, sociological, and ideological criticism methods, and the political, sociological, and class aspects of the Democrat Party's policies, as well as their economic aspects, were analyzed.

Political Theory as Philosophy, as Positive Science, and as Critique

Author develops a critical review of the three dominant perspectives in Political Theory: Behaviorist, Empirical-Analitical, Classic and Contemporary Normative Theories, and Dialectical-Critical perspectives. Under the influence of scientific positivism and its critique of metaphysics, especially in the Anglophone world, the Behaviorist political theory has been developed. Its origin lies in the idea of ‘pure political science’ which, as author argues, becomes gradually, a metaphysical perspective of its own kind. Based on criticism of Behaviorist political theory, especially under the influence of Leo Strauss a new, contemporary political theory has been developed by rehabilitation of the classical perspective. For Strauss, as well as for example, for Aristotle, poltical knowledge is tightly connected to ethical action, and the political discourse is always at the same time the ‘ethical-political’. This theoretical perspective is, author suggests, an attempt to reflect upon the very foundations of political community, so in this way it is at the same time a particular ontology, which is the main point of criticism coming from a positivist block. The dialectical – critical political theories have their source, above all, in Hegel’s philosophy, and, especially after Marx and Engels, the task of political theory is understood in a rather ‘activist’ sense as investigation of political systems, institutions and revealing of relations that establish the rule of the privileged. With Critical School of 1930’s this political-theoretical approach attempts to maintain historical perspectives of understanding the society and state and their complex processes. Second important characteristics of this approach is the conception of totality, also coming from Hegel, for who the truth is always a matter of the whole, and not in some particular part. Another important feature is dialectical attitude, in fact, identification of contradictions and their conflict as mover of social and political processes. In the conclusion part, author refers to the idea of a ‘democratic political philosophy’ developed by John Rawls, as possible synthesis of dominant perspectives in political theory.

Elaborate yet Enchanting: Exploring Lacans Register Theory

The most fascinating psychoanalytic theorist of the 20th century, Lacan, built on Freuds psychoanalytic theory to create a conceptual and all-encompassing framework for psychoanalysis. His theory, which is distinguished by a striking lack of a priori assumptions, has had a significant impact. Lacans views have influenced generations of philosophers and cultural theorists, resonating in fields as diverse as philosophy, film theory, feminism, literary criticism, and even modern ideological critiques. The core of Lacanian theory, the Register Theorythe Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Realremains, laying the groundwork for his theories of the unconscious, subjectivity, objectivity, and gender differences. The Register Theory stands as Lacans most enthralling, yet also most intricate and demanding theoretical framework. This article endeavors to systematically expound upon Lacans perspectives concerning the Imaginary, Symbolic, and the Real, alongside the interplay of these three orders. It embarks on discourse and reiteration of Lacans triadic orders, striving to craft a tableau of Lacanian theory through these restatements.

Edward Said and Philosophy

AbstractThis article brings to the forefront Timothy Brennan’s emphasis on Edward Said’s engagement with philosophy. An attempt is made to reconstruct some of Brennan’s claims about Said’s views on the relationship between mental representations and the external world. It is shown that Said rejected naïve or direct realism in favor of representationalism. It is also argued that, despite being seen as a post-modern thinker, Said subscribed to a version of the correspondence theory of truth. Said embraced some form of standpoint epistemology, but he did not think that this had any direct bearing on how we should think about what makes a given claim true. Finally, an attempt is made to understand the relationship between Said’s project and the classical Marxist project of ideology critique, as well as contemporary attempts to develop an epistemology of ignorance.

Functions of crisis in religious education discourse since 1975. A critical corpus-assisted analysis

ABSTRACT The omnipresence of multiple crisis diagnoses in contemporary public discourse deeply affects religious education (RE). At first sight, this does not seem to be surprising, insofar as it corresponds to the pedagogical ambition to meaningfully respond to challenges in the lifeworld of learners. Yet, what happens when current phenomena are framed as crisis? Prior to asking the question how RE responds to a particular crisis, one might consider the way in which the perception of reality as crisis emerges and works. Against this background, the paper investigates the use of ‘crisis’ in RE discourse since 1975. We consider developments up to 2019 using an evenly distributed, diachronic random sample of 485 papers from English RE journals, and then compare this with a synchronic corpus of 31 papers around the emergence of the Covid pandemic. With reference to critical political theory, crises are interpreted as part of normative orders that structure the perception of the respective present. Methodologically, we follow the approach of a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis. Results show how RE discourse frames its perception of the present by means of diagnosing crises. A critical examination of corresponding attributions and implications opens spaces for alternative ways of thinking and acting.

Fascist uses of conspiracy theories: alienation, anxiety, and false concreteness in the critical political theory of Franz Neumann

ABSTRACT Recent decades have seen are surgence in the use of conspiracy theories by populist and autocratic political figures. This has sat alongside a renewed interest in using insights from Frankfurt School thinkers to open critical perspectives on fascist uses of conspiracy theories. This paper builds on resurgent interest in the work of Franz Neumann, and directs attention to the political manipulation of alienation and anxiety. Building on Neumann’s insistence that a falsely concrete theory of history is in operation wherever conspiracy theories resonate politically, this paper argues for the neglected centrality of conspiracy thinking in nearly all instances of fascist politics. Conspiracy theories are a structural feature of fascism – a hypothesis that invites empirical testing to see if it might better fit the overall pattern. Neumann’s political critical theory also returns our attention to the possibility of an antifascist critical theory with the political at the centre of its concerns, opening lines of inquiry that complement Adorno’s insights into domination of the administered world and the culture industry.

Just an Illusion?

Just an Illusion?

The Magic of Media and Culture

The Magic of Media and Culture