Philosophers’ conviction of expressing unity is what turns ideas into material social forces

Evidence

That the philosophy of praxis thinks of itself in a historicist manner, that is, as a transitory phase of philosophical thought, is not only implicit in its entire system, but is made quite explicit in the well-known thesis that historical development will at a certain point be characterised by the passage from the reign of necessity to the reign of freedom. 506 All hitherto existing philosophies (philosophical systems) have been manifestations of the intimate contradictions by which society is lacerated. But each philosophical system taken by itself has not been the conscious expression of these contradictions, since this expression could be provided only by the ensemble of systems in conflict with each other. Every philosopher is, and cannot but be, convinced that he expresses the unity of the human spirit, that is, the unity of history and nature. Indeed, if such a conviction did not exist, men would not act, they would not create new history, philosophies would not become ideologies and would not in practice assume the fanatical granite compactness of the “popular beliefs” which assume the same energy as “material forces”. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1435

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci here defines how philosophy becomes ideology: through the philosopher’s conviction of expressing the unity of history and nature, ideas gain ‘material force’.
• XREF: This prefigures the later Islamophobia field’s claim that Orientalist ideas, once naturalized as ‘common sense,’ become material forces structuring policy and perception.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that systematic error (each philosophy’s falsely unitary conviction) is a productive historical force, not mere illusion, is dense and quietly reverses a naive materialism.