Attending seriously to religious ideology saved Hill’s Marxism from economic reductionism

Evidence

Whether or not we try to develop an adequate Marxist theory of ideology from this point, it seems to be the case that the problem of ideology presents us with a paradigm instance of Marxist theory as such , what Althusser has called the necessity—and the difficulty—of holding on to “both ends of the chain” at once: the relative autonomy of a region (e.g., ideology) and its “determination in the last instance” (i.e., the determinacy of ideology by other instances, and, in the last instance, by the economic). It is the necessity to hold fast to the latter protocol which has, from time to time, sanctioned a tendency to collapse the levels of a special formation—especially, to collapse “ideas” or ideology into “the base” (narrowly defined as “the economic”). On the other hand, it is the requirement to explore the difficult terrain of “relative autonomy” (of ideology) which has given the field of ideology its awkward openness. It is through this gap—to borrow a recent metaphor of Althusser’s—that the “pup” of semiology continues to “slip between the legs” of a Marxist theory of ideology. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 371 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Serious attention to ideology in its own terms strengthens rather than weakens Marxism.; Hunting for a single originator of an ideology is a reductionist mistake; Marxism is not economic reductionism and requires attending to ideas in their own terms (+6 more)

Related

• Marxism is not economic reductionism and requires attending to ideas in their own terms (similarity 0.91)
• Serious attention to ideology in its own terms strengthens rather than weakens Marxism. (similarity 0.89)
• Marxism must hold determination in the last instance without falling into absolute autonomy (similarity 0.89)
• The Second International enshrined reductive economic determinism as official Marxism (similarity 0.88)
• Marxist theory requires holding both relative autonomy and economic determinacy at once (similarity 0.88)
• Treating ideology seriously in its own terms strengthens rather than dilutes Marxist analysis (similarity 0.87)
• The theory of ideology must hold both relative autonomy and economic determination simultaneously. (similarity 0.86)
• Economic structures are necessary but not sufficient to explain political and ideological features (similarity 0.86)
• The core problem is reconciling economic determination with superstructural autonomy (similarity 0.86)
• Hunting for a single originator of an ideology is a reductionist mistake (similarity 0.85)
• Marxism reads social formations as overdetermined unities with relatively autonomous levels (similarity 0.85)
• Marxism conceives society as overdetermined relatively autonomous levels, not a simple unity (similarity 0.85)
• Political and intellectual action is the true expression of economic necessity (similarity 0.82)
• Marxist analysis needs both material grounding and historical specificity to avoid twin errors (similarity 0.81)
• Each Marxian premise alone yields reductionism or relativism (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Marxism is not economic reductionism and requires attending to ideas in their own terms #corroborates (0.80)
• A new Marxist paradigm seeks to overcome economism and reductionism #corroborates (0.70)
• Marxist theory requires holding both relative autonomy and economic determinacy at once #expands (0.70) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 371
• Marxism reads social formations as overdetermined unities with relatively autonomous levels #expands (0.65)
• The Second International enshrined reductive economic determinism as official Marxism #expands (0.60)
• Marxism must hold determination in the last instance without falling into absolute autonomy #expands (0.60)