Ideologies after ideologies. On cynical naivety Cover Image

Ideologie po ideologiach. O cynicznej naiwności
Ideologies after ideologies. On cynical naivety

Author(s): Małgorzata Kowalska
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
Keywords: ideology; end of ideology; cynicism; Marxism; psychoanalysis; postmodernism; Polish school of historians of ideas

Summary/Abstract: The main idea of the article is that in our „postmodern” world ideologies are not at all dead but adopt new forms which I call both cynical (in Slotedijk’s sense of the term) and naïve. I start with reflecting on the very meaning of the term “ideology” and propose to adopt its broad and “dialectical” sense, embracing ideology as false knowledge and as false consciousness, but emphasizing its connection with power. After recalling some theories of the “end of ideology”, from Aron to Lyotard, through Polish thinkers such as Leszek Kołakowski, all based on a rather narrow sense of ideology. I argue that ideologies understood as a complex interconnection of desire and power have regained a crucial role, after the fall of the communist utopia, in the context of consumerist and technological capitalism and its conservative opponents.

  • Issue Year: 1/2018
  • Issue No: XXX
  • Page Range: 5-24
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Polish