Rethinking Knowledge as Ideology

Ideology, Theory and the Problem of Reality Historically, the term ‘ideology’ made its first appearance at the time of the French Revolution, its author, Antoine Destutt de Tracy, being one of the group of savants whom the Convention in 1795 entrusted with the manage- ment of the newly founded Institut de France. The creation of the Institute was part of an attempt to provide France with a nation-wide system of higher learning committed to the philosophy of the Enlightenment. Moreover, the ideologists of the Institute were liberals who regarded freedom of thought and expression as the principal conquest of the Revolution. Their attitude was ‘ideological’ in the two-fold sense of being concerned with ideas and of placing the attainment of ‘ideal’ aims (their own) ahead of the ‘material’ interests on which the post-revolutionary society rested.