Appearances are historically necessary, not merely illusory

Evidence

The terms “apparent” and “appearance” mean precisely this and nothing else, and are justifiable despite dogmatic opposition. They are the assertion of the perishable nature of all ideological systems, side by side with the assertion that all systems have an historical validity, and are necessary (“Man acquires consciousness of social relations in the field of ideology”: 175 is not this an assertion of the necessity and the validity of “appearances”?) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 630

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes Gramsci’s dialectical reading—where ‘appearance’ means historically perishable yet necessary ideology—from a dogmatic dismissal of ideology as mere illusion.
• XREF: This dialectical defense of appearances as necessary is the conceptual forerunner of how later theory reads racialized/religious representations of the Other as historically produced and changeable, not eternal.