Editing Ideology (section)

===Marxist interpretation===
[[File:Karl Marx 001 (3x4 cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|[[Karl Marx]] posits that a society's dominant ideology is integral to its superstructure.]]
Marx's analysis sees ideology as a system of false consciousness that arises from the economic relationships, reflecting and perpetuating the interests of the dominant class.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marx |first1=Karl |last2=Engels |first2=Friedrich |date=1974 |title=The German Ideology. [Students Edition] |chapter=I. Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlooks |pages=64{{hyphen}}68 |publisher=Lawrence & Wishart |isbn=9780853152170}}</ref>

In the Marxist [[base and superstructure]] model of society, ''base'' denotes the [[relations of production]] and [[modes of production]], and ''superstructure'' denotes the [[dominant ideology]] (i.e. religious, legal, political systems). The economic base of production determines the political superstructure of a society. Ruling [[Class interest|class-interests]] determine the superstructure and the nature of the justifying ideology—actions feasible because the [[ruling class]] control the [[means of production]]. For example, in a [[feudal]] [[mode of production]], religious ideology is the most prominent aspect of the superstructure, while in capitalist formations, ideologies such as [[liberalism]] and [[social democracy]] dominate. Hence the great importance of ideology justifies a society and politically confuses the alienated groups of society via [[false consciousness]]. Some explanations have been presented. [[Antonio Gramsci]] uses [[cultural hegemony]] to explain why the [[working-class]] have a false ideological conception of what their best interests are. Marx argued: "The class which has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same time over the means of mental production."<ref>{{cite book|last=Marx|first=Karl|title="The German Ideology: Part I", The Marx-Engels Reader 2nd ed.|year=1978a|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|location=New York}}</ref>

The Marxist formulation of "ideology as an instrument of social reproduction" is conceptually important to the [[sociology of knowledge]],<ref>In this discipline, there are lexical disputes over the meaning of the word "ideology" ("false consciousness" as advocated by Marx, or rather "false position" of a statement in itself is correct but irrelevant in the context in which it is produced, as in [[Max Weber]]'s opinion): {{cite journal|last1=Buonomo|first1=Giampiero|title=Eleggibilità più ampia senza i paletti del peculato d'uso? Un'occasione (perduta) per affrontare il tema delle leggi ad personam|journal=Diritto&Giustizia Edizione Online|date=2005|url=https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89394794|access-date=|archive-date=2016-03-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324160801/https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89394794|url-status=}}</ref> viz. [[Karl Mannheim]], [[Daniel Bell]], and [[Jürgen Habermas]] et al. Moreover, Mannheim has developed and progressed from the "total" but "special" Marxist conception of ideology to a "general" and "total" ideological conception acknowledging that all ideology (including [[Marxism]]) resulted from social life, an idea developed by the sociologist [[Pierre Bourdieu]]. [[Slavoj Žižek]] and the earlier [[Frankfurt School]] added to the "general theory" of ideology a psychoanalytic insight that ideologies do not include only conscious but also [[unconscious mind|unconscious]] ideas.