The Emergence and Development of Marx’s Concept of Ideology

The emergence of Marx’s concept of ideology was deeply influenced by the French Enlightenment thinkers and the French Revolution, while also having important origins in the German Enlightenment and classical German philosophy. Its development was not only closely linked to the transformation of Marx’s philosophical and political positions, but also intertwined with his theoretical exploration of establishing historical materialism and his revolutionary practice of guiding the cause of proletarian liberation.

马克思意识形态概念的出场深受法国启蒙思想家和法国大革命的影响，同时与德国的启蒙运动及德国古典哲学有着重要的渊源关系，其展开既与马克思的哲学立场和政治立场的转变过程密切联系，又与其创立唯物史观的理论探索和指导无产阶级解放事业的革命实践互为表里。

Tracing the Origins: The Impetus of French and German Intellectual Currents

追本溯源：法德两国思潮的推动

After coming to power, Napoleon ambitiously used the state apparatus to demolish the cultural gardens of the old world, in order to establish new French spiritual and cultural symbols. While Napoleon rewarded renowned scholars who “helped establish or defend the principles of the Republic with their knowledge, talent, and virtue,” he placed education and academia under uncompromising, company-style training and management. French philosophy fell silent. However, the fruits of the French Revolution were transported to other European countries along with the fluttering of Napoleon’s military flags. Napoleon swept away the feudal systems of Europe, broadened the horizons of the Germans, and Germany’s intellectual circles boiled over as a result. Napoleon was a bane for the idéologues in France, but in Germany he became their savior. As the German philosopher Fichte said: “Without Napoleon, our philosophers and their ideas would have been wiped out entirely by hanging and breaking on the wheel.” On October 13, 1806, when Napoleon’s army approached the city of Jena, Hegel, who had just finished writing *The Phenomenology of Spirit*, humorously and profoundly referred to Napoleon as “the world spirit on horseback.” In the modern section of his *Lectures on the History of Philosophy*, Hegel mentioned the French term for “ideology” more than once. The influence of Napoleon, the French Revolution, and the concept of ideology on Germany in the first half of the 19th century is thus evident.

拿破仑上台后，开始雄心勃勃地用国家机器去摧毁旧世界的文化园地，以确立法国新的精神文化象征。拿破仑在对“以其学问、才干和德行帮助建立或捍卫共和国原则”的著名学者给予奖励的同时，却把教育和学术置于不折不扣的连队式的训练和管理之下。法国哲学沉默了。然而，法国革命的成果伴随着拿破仑军旗的飘扬被输送到了欧洲其他国家。拿破仑扫除了欧洲的封建制度，打开了德意志人的眼界，德国的思想界因此而沸腾起来。拿破仑在法国是意识形态家们的灾星，可在德国却成了意识形态家们的救星。正如德国哲学家费希特所说：“没有拿破仑，我们的哲学家和他们的观念一起会被绞刑和车裂消灭得一干二净。”1806年10月13日，当拿破仑兵临耶拿城下时，刚刚写完《精神现象学》的黑格尔幽默而颇具深意地称拿破仑为“马背上的精神世界”。在《哲学史讲演录》近代部分，黑格尔曾不止一次地提到过“意识形态”概念的法语词。拿破仑、法国大革命及意识形态概念对19世纪上半叶德国的影响由此可见一斑。

During his stay in Paris in 1844, Marx studied Destutt de Tracy’s *Éléments d’idéologie* and made nearly thirty excerpts on economic content. In his *Excerpts from James Mill’s ‘Elements of Political Economy’*, the *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, and *The German Ideology*, Marx critically mentioned some of Tracy’s views. In a sense, Marx’s concept of ideology was imported from France. In fact, Marx’s concept of ideology also benefited from classical German philosophy, characterized by its powerful critical rationality. If we say that the empiricism pioneered by the English philosopher Bacon was developed into sensationalism in France and then forged into the concept of “ideology” by Tracy, then classical German philosophy, starting with Kant’s philosophy, passing through Fichte and Schelling, and culminating in Hegel, gave birth to Marx’s theory of ideology. When Kant ascended the philosophical stage, modern philosophy was mired in difficulties. On the one hand, Kant established the universal necessity of scientific knowledge through the subject’s a priori forms of cognition; on the other hand, he opened the way for freedom by limiting the cognitive capacity of reason. Kant placed practical reason above theoretical reason, arguing that the purpose of scientific knowledge is to realize human freedom. He demarcated the functions of reason through rational critique, limiting reason’s cognitive capacity to make room for freedom, morality, and metaphysics, thereby addressing the problem of how human reason can remain free while strictly obeying the necessary laws of nature. Kant’s exploration of practical reason opened the study of ideology in classical German philosophy. The great synthesizer of classical German philosophy, Hegel, used an important term in *The Phenomenology of Spirit*: “die Gestalten des Bewusstseins,” i.e., “shapes of consciousness” [Gestalten des Bewusstseins]. The German word “die Gestalten” often appears in the plural, literally translated as “shapes of consciousness.” Each spiritual phenomenon is a shape of consciousness; from the perspective of the stages of consciousness development, each stage is a shape of consciousness. The phenomenology of spirit is both a science of the shapes of consciousness and a history of the development of consciousness. Hegel treated the development of human consciousness as a historical process, striving to break through the boundaries of certainty, seeing negative factors within the affirmative, discovering affirmative moments within the negative, while using a large number of metaphors to express his thoughts. He provided a concrete exposition of the various shapes of consciousness corresponding to the historical development of human society, revealing a historical and dialectical method for examining the phenomenon of ideology. Hegel’s philosophy had a great influence on Marx. It was precisely by combining these two currents of thought from France and Germany that Marx pushed the concept of ideology to the forefront of intellectual, political, and academic fields.

马克思在1844年旅居巴黎期间曾经研读特拉西的《意识形态要素》一书，并作了近三十段关于经济学内容的摘录。在《詹姆士·穆勒〈政治经济学原理〉一书摘要》《1844年经济学哲学手稿》《德意志意识形态》中，马克思曾用批判的方式提到特拉西的某些见解。在某种意义上说，马克思的意识形态概念是从法国引进的。事实上，马克思的意识形态概念还得益于以强劲的批判理性为特征的德国古典哲学。如果说英国哲学家培根开创的经验论在法国被发展成为感觉论，并进而在特拉西那里被打造为“意识形态”概念的话，那么以康德哲学为始发点，经费希特、谢林，至黑格尔达到顶峰的德国古典哲学则催生了马克思的意识形态学说。当康德登上哲学舞台的时候，近代哲学正陷入困境之中。康德一方面通过主体先天的认识形式来确立科学知识的普遍必然性，另一方面则通过理性认识能力的限制为自由开辟道路。康德把实践理性置于理论理性之上，认为科学知识的目的在于实现人的自由，通过理性批判为理性诸功能划界，以限制理性的认识能力，为自由、道德和形而上学留地盘，以此来解决人类理性如何在严格服从必然的自然法则的同时仍然能够保持自由的问题。康德对实践理性的探求，开启了德国古典哲学对意识形态的研究。德国古典哲学的集大成者黑格尔在《精神现象学》中使用了一个重要术语“die Gestalten des Bewusstseins”，即“意识形态”。“形态”的德语词“die Gestalten”常以复数形式出现，直译为“意识诸形态”。每一个精神现象就是一个意识形态，从意识发展阶段来说，每一个阶段都是一个意识形态。精神现象学既是意识形态学，又是意识发展史。黑格尔把人类意识的发展当作一个历史的过程，试图千方百计地突破确定性的界限，在肯定性中看到否定的因素，从否定性中发现肯定的环节，同时使用了大量隐喻来表达其思想，对与人类社会历史发展相对应的各种意识形态进行了具体阐述，揭示了考察意识形态现象的历史的和辩证的方法。黑格尔的哲学对马克思产生了很大影响。马克思正是结合法国和德国这两种思潮而把意识形态概念推向了思想、政治和学术领域的前沿。

Breaking the Old to Establish the New: A Copernican Revolution

破旧立新：一场哥白尼式的革命

Between 1840 and 1841, Marx first used the concept of ideology in “Notebook Seven,” while preparing for his doctoral dissertation. “Nature is no longer a source of fear for our consciousness; it is precisely Epicurus who makes the immediate ideology of being-for-itself a natural shape.” Marx wrote in his doctoral dissertation: “What our life needs is not ideology and empty hypotheses, but that we can live without confusion.” The mention of ideology here only expressed, in a general sense, Marx’s negative attitude toward speculation and empty hypotheses. This was because Marx was at this time on the eve of his transition to materialism and communism, directly engaging in ideological and political struggles. From September to December 1841, Marx participated in the preparatory work for the *Rheinische Zeitung*, began writing for it in 1842, and became its editor-in-chief in October of the same year. During this period, Marx “for the first time encountered the difficulty of having to express an opinion on so-called material interests.” In the process of exploring and solving practical problems, Marx began to doubt his original philosophical beliefs. In the *Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood*, Marx publicly defended the interests and rights of the politically and socially oppressed working masses. To those who defended the privileges of the forest owners, Marx sarcastically remarked: “How are we to understand this sudden change of ideology? For in the realm of thought we encounter only followers of Napoleon.” This was the first time Marx used the term “ideology” to analyze practical problems in political and social life. This implied a situation: Marx’s future “settling of accounts” with “ideology” also included a settling of accounts with his own original philosophical beliefs.

1840年至1841年，马克思在为自己的博士论文做准备的“笔记七”中第一次使用了意识形态概念。“自然对我们的意识来说，不再是恐惧的来源，而正是伊壁鸠鲁使直接的意识形态自为存在成为一种自然的形态。”马克思在博士论文中写道：“我们的生活需要的不是意识形态和空洞的假设，而是我们要能够过没有迷乱的生活。”这里的意识形态的提法只是在一般意义上表示了马克思对于玄想和空洞的假设的否定态度。因为马克思此时正处于直接投身现实的思想斗争和政治斗争，实现向唯物主义和共产主义转变的前夕。1841年9月至12月，马克思参加了《莱茵报》的筹办工作，1842年开始为该报撰稿，同年10月接任该报主编。这一时期，马克思“第一次遇到要对所谓物质利益发表意见的难事”。在探索和解决现实问题的过程中，马克思对原有的哲学信仰产生了怀疑。在《关于林木盗窃法的辩论》中，马克思公开申明为政治上、社会上备受压迫的劳苦大众的利益和权利辩护。对那些为维护林木占有者的特权的人，马克思讽刺地说：“我们究竟应如何来了解这一急转突变的意识形态呢？要知道，我们在思想方面所遇见的只是些拿破仑的追随者。”这是马克思第一次用“意识形态”术语来分析政治与社会生活中的实际问题。这里隐含着这样一种态势：马克思未来对“意识形态”的清算也包括了对自己原有哲学信仰的清算。

In January 1843, the Prussian government decided to suppress the *Rheinische Zeitung*. Marx left the newspaper’s editorial board in March and arrived in the city of Kreuznach in the Rhine Province in May, then went to Paris, France, in October of the same year. During this period, Marx “withdrew from the public stage to the study.” Troubled by the intellectual anxieties arising from his political practice during the *Rheinische Zeitung* period, he devoted himself to historical research, as well as a critique of Hegel’s philosophy of right, and later turned to the study of economics. From the combination of economics and philosophy, he moved into the depths of history, completed a fundamental transformation of his philosophical worldview, and established historical materialism. The important idea Marx proposed in his *Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right*—that “civil society determines the state”—opened the path to historical materialism and to a correct grasp of the concept of ideology. In his critique of religion, Marx said: “The state, society produces religion, an inverted world-consciousness, because they themselves are an inverted world.” Here, Marx profoundly revealed that the falsity inherent in ideology originates from real social life, and clearly showed that the edge of Marx’s critique of ideology was directed straight at the political and social foundations that produced such false ideologies. Standing on the ground of revolutionary materialism, Marx discussed the dialectical relationship between the mutual transformation of material force and spiritual force, while clearly pointing out that scientific revolutionary theory, and even ideology, can be transformed into material force and play a huge role in the historical development of human society.

1843年1月，普鲁士政府决定查封《莱茵报》，马克思3月退出该报编辑部并于5月来到莱茵省的克罗茨纳赫城，同年10月赴法国巴黎。这一时期，马克思“从社会舞台退回书房”，带着《莱茵报》时期的政治实践所产生的思想苦恼致力于历史研究，以及黑格尔法哲学批判并在后来转向经济学研究，从经济学与哲学的结合中走向历史的深处，完成了哲学世界观的根本转变，创立了唯物史观。马克思在《黑格尔法哲学批判》中提出的“市民社会决定国家”的重要思想，开辟了通向唯物史观以及正确把握意识形态概念的道路。马克思在对宗教的批判中说：“国家、社会产生了宗教即颠倒了的世界观，因为它们本身就是颠倒了的世界。”在这里，马克思深刻地揭示了意识形态所具有的虚假性源于现实的社会生活，而且清楚地表明，马克思的意识形态批判的锋芒是直指产生这种虚假意识形态的政治与社会基础的。马克思站在革命的唯物主义立场上，论述了物质力量与精神力量之间相互转化的辩证关系，同时明确指出了科学的革命理论乃至意识形态在人类历史发展进程中可以转化为物质力量而发挥其巨大的作用。

Deepening and Expanding: The Turn in the Study of Ideology

深入拓展：意识形态研究的转向

From late September 1845 to the summer of 1846, Marx and Engels jointly authored *The German Ideology*, a work that provides a full exposition of the general theory of society and history. In it, Marx coined the German term “Ideologie” for the concept of ideology. According to Marx’s own account, the purpose of writing *The German Ideology* was, first, to “settle accounts” with his former philosophical conscience, and second, “to clarify matters for ourselves.” This aim was to be achieved by “jointly setting forth our opposition to the ideological views of German philosophy” and “actually coming to terms with our former philosophical conscience,” and it was carried out “in the form of a critique of post-Hegelian philosophy.” [1]1 The phrase “settle accounts with our former philosophical conscience” and “to clarify matters for ourselves” are Marx’s own descriptions of the purpose of *The German Ideology*, as stated in his 1859 Preface to *A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy*. The objects of polemic in this work—including Strauss, Bauer, Feuerbach, Stirner, and others—were all German philosophers contemporary with Marx. Hence, the term “ideology” in the title is clearly pejorative. In Marx’s exposition, ideology is first and foremost treated as “false consciousness,” “illusion,” or “fantasy.” So why does ideology become “false consciousness”? Marx argues that “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas… The class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.” [2]2 This is a direct quotation from *The German Ideology* (Marx/ Engels Collected Works, vol. 5, p. 59). Consequently, the product of intellectual production in a given historical period—namely, ideology—essentially manifests primarily as the ideas of the ruling class. The particular interests of the ruling class and their expression in ideas are all given a universal form. However, a contradiction exists between the ruling class’s mode of rule and its forms of social intercourse, on the one hand, and the productive forces that have moved ahead, on the other. This contradiction necessarily manifests as a conflict between the ideology of the ruling class and existing relations. The more this contradiction develops, the more the ideas of the ruling class, which have been given a universal form, “naturally become more and more unreal… and sink to the level of mere idealizing phrases, conscious illusions, and deliberate hypocrisy.” [3]3 This is a paraphrase and partial quotation from *The German Ideology* (Marx/ Engels Collected Works, vol. 5, p. 60). Ideology as false consciousness lies in its being a superstructure of ideas that is out of step with the socio-economic base, in its giving a universal form to the ideas of a particular class, in its justification of the unequal distribution of economic and social resources, and in its concealment of the true nature of the economy and society.

1845年9月底至1846年夏，马克思和恩格斯合著的《德意志意识形态》是一部对社会和历史的一般理论进行充分论述的著作。马克思在其中创制了意识形态概念的德语词“Ideologie”。根据马克思自己的叙述，《德意志意识形态》的写作目的，一是“清算”自己从前的哲学信仰，二是“自己弄清问题”。这样的目的是通过与恩格斯一起“共同阐明我们的见解与德国哲学的意识形态的见解的对立”，并“以批判黑格尔以后的哲学的形式来实现的”。这部著作与之论战的对象，包括施特劳斯、鲍威尔、费尔巴哈、施蒂纳等，都是与马克思同时代的德国哲学家。因此，书名中的“意识形态”显然是贬义的。在马克思的论述中，意识形态首先是作为“虚假的观念”“幻象”或“幻想”来对待的。那么，意识形态何以成为“虚假的观念”呢？马克思认为，“统治阶级的思想在每一时代都是占统治地位的思想……支配着物质生产资料的阶级，同时也支配着精神生产的资料”。因而，一定社会历史时期的精神生产的产物即意识形态，在本质上主要体现为统治阶级的思想。统治阶级的特殊利益及其在观念上的表现都被赋予了普遍性的形式。然而，统治阶级的统治方式及其社会交往形式与走在前面的生产力之间存在着矛盾，这种矛盾必然表现为统治阶级的意识形态与现存关系的冲突。这种矛盾愈发展，被赋予了普遍性形式的统治阶级的思想“当然也就愈不真实……也就愈发下降为唯心的词句、有意识的幻想和有目的的虚伪”。意识形态作为虚假的观念，在于其作为观念的上层建筑与社会经济基础的不相适应，在于其赋予特定阶级的思想以普遍性的形式，在于其对经济与社会资源不平等分配的辩护，在于其对经济与社会真正本质的掩饰。

Of course, in Marx’s view, ideology is not necessarily or simply “false consciousness.” First, ideology is inherent in any complete social structure. In *The German Ideology*, Marx briefly summarizes this complete social structure as “productive forces, social conditions, and consciousness,” and correspondingly refers to ideological forms such as politics, law, morality, religion, and metaphysics as the “superstructure of ideas.” [4]4 The phrase “superstructure of ideas” (ideeller Überbau) is Marx’s term in *The German Ideology* for the realm of consciousness, as distinct from the economic base. Second, ideology reflects the objective existence of common social interests. This common interest “does not exist merely in the imagination, as the ‘universal,’ but first of all in reality, as the mutual interdependence of the individuals among whom the labor is divided.” [5]5 This is a direct quotation from *The German Ideology* (Marx/ Engels Collected Works, vol. 5, p. 47). Ideology, reflecting this common interest, sustains society in its own particular way. With the establishment of historical materialism and the deepening of research into political economy, Marx’s understanding of ideology continued to enrich and deepen. In *Capital*, Marx emphatically highlighted the distinction between the phenomenal forms of capitalist society and the basic relations of production that underlie them. He scientifically revealed how bourgeois ideology is generated through the forms in which people are combined in the everyday affairs of capitalist society, and he launched a profound critique of the core of bourgeois ideology—commodity fetishism.

当然，在马克思看来，意识形态并不必然和简单地是“虚假的观念”。其一，意识形态是一个完整的社会结构所固有的东西。在《德意志意识形态》中，马克思将这种完整的社会结构简要概括为“生产力、社会状况和意识”，相应地把政治、法律、道德、宗教、形而上学等意识形态的形式称为“观念的上层建筑”。其二，意识形态反映了客观存在的社会共同利益。这种共同利益“不是仅仅作为一种‘普遍的东西’存在于观念之中，而首先是作为彼此有了分工的个人之间的相互依存关系存在于现实之中”。反映着这种共同利益的意识形态以其特有的方式维系着社会。随着唯物史观的确立和对政治经济学研究的日益深入，马克思关于意识形态的认识也在不断丰富和深化。在《资本论》中，马克思着力强调了资本主义社会的现象形式与作为它们的基础的基本生产关系之间的区别，科学地揭示了资产阶级意识形态，依据资本主义社会日常事务中人们结合在一起的形式而被生成的方式，对资产阶级意识形态的核心——商品拜物教展开了深刻的批判。

In short, with Marx, the study of ideology underwent a genuine turn. In his view, ideology is not merely a question of logical or epistemological truth or falsehood; more importantly, it involves the exposure of the true nature of society concealed beneath ideological illusions. Marx’s analysis and exposure of the various discursive strategies hidden by ideology became the central content of his critique of ideology. The semantic power of the concept of ideology arises from this.

总之，在马克思那里，意识形态研究发生了真正的转向。在他看来，意识形态不仅仅是一个逻辑上或认识上的真假问题，更重要的是对意识形态幻象掩盖下的社会真正本质的揭露。马克思对意识形态所隐蔽的种种话语策略的剖析和揭露，成为意识形态批判的中心内容。意识形态概念的语义威力由此而生。

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