Ideology is defined by an unresolved tension between historical relativity and universal truth.

Evidence

However, it is still fair to say that at base, that is at its epistemological substratum, Marxism is a Western construction—a conceptualization of human affairs and historical development that is emergent from the historical experiences of European peoples mediated, in turn, through their civilization, their social orders, and their cultures. Certainly its philosophical origins are indisputably Western. But the same must be said of its analytical presumptions, its historical perspectives, its points of view. This most natural consequence though has assumed a rather ominous significance since European Marxists have presumed more frequently than not that their project is identical with world-historical development. Confounded it would seem by the cultural zeal that accompanies ascendant civilizations, they have mistaken for universal verities the structures and social dynamics retrieved from their own distant and more immediate pasts. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 114 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

This puts Griffin firmly on the side of my distinguished colleague Sanford Levinson in his debate with Judge Harry Edwards.2’ To my chagrin, I find myself disagreeing with Griffin and Levinson, though I am honored by the company of Judge Edwards. I do not mean that legal scholarship ought to transform itself into the memoranda of an academy of clerks. But I do think that the pursuit of truth requires the theorist to account for the remarkable phenomenon of the resolution of conflict when the means of determining truth conditions-the modalities-continue to conflict and resist coming to closure. — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 571 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The concept of ideology was born torn between historical relativism and universal truth.; Ideology has always been defined against Truth, Reason, and Science.; The concept of ideology has always been shadowed by its opposite, Truth and Reason. (+2 more)

Related

• Theorizing truth must account for conflicts that resist closure. (similarity 0.83)
• The concept of ideology was born torn between historical relativism and universal truth. (similarity 0.83)
• Ideology critique has been shadowed by claims to absolute truth since its inception (similarity 0.82)
• Marx’s own theory anticipated its eventual negation as historical ideology (similarity 0.81)
• Ideological domination must be opposed by theory, not counterideology (similarity 0.80)
• Ideology disrupts predicted historical processes and enables revolutions (similarity 0.79)
• Conflating means with base reduces ideology to its material substrate absurdly (similarity 0.78)
• Unexpected ideology intrudes to derail Marxism’s predicted historical inevitability (similarity 0.78)
• Marxism’s entire epistemological foundation is a Western European construction (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The concept of ideology has always been shadowed by its opposite, Truth and Reason. #expands (0.80)
• European Marxists mistook their localized structures for universal historical truths #exemplifies (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 114
• Theorizing truth must account for conflicts that resist closure. #complicates (0.60) — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 571