The original meaning of ideology was the science of how ideas derive from sensations
Evidence
“Ideology” was an aspect of “sensationalism”, i.e. eighteenth-century French materialism. Its original meaning was that of “science of ideas”, and since analysis was the only method recognised and applied by science it means “analysis of ideas”, that is, “investigation of the origin of ideas”. Ideas had to be broken down into their original “elements”, and these could be nothing other than “sensations”. Ideas derived from sensations. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1334
Categorization
- DEFINE: Establishes the etymological root: ideology as science of the origins of ideas in sensation, before its historical shift of meaning.
- XREF: Connects to Marx’s own critique of the French Ideologues in The German Ideology, and to the toolkit concept of ideology critique. — connects to: Ideologies that explain everything from a single premise are a recent phenomenon; Ideology’s shift from science of ideas to system of ideas demands historical explanation
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1334