Philosophy, Ideology and Social Science (dedikált példány)

Fülszöveg

Introduction
Ever since Menenius Agrippa addressed the people of Rome who went on strike and occupied the Sacred Mount in sixth Century B.C., the 'organic' conception of the social order has been advocated on numerous occasions. According to this much revered Roman Consul—who, in the characteristic words of The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'was known to be a man of moderate views'—every social rank has its 'proper place' in the great organism. The lower ranks should derive their satisfaction from the 'reflected glory' that, no matter how lowly, they are 'equally important' for the functioning of the body to which they belong.
This was, of course, a most powerful exercise in ideology. Legend has it that the protesting people were so moved by the Consul's 'moderate views' that they immediately abandoned their stand of collective defiance and returned to the place assigned to them.
Be that as it may, at least one historical fact is beyond dispute. Namely, that they remained tied to... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Introduction
Ever since Menenius Agrippa addressed the people of Rome who went on strike and occupied the Sacred Mount in sixth Century B.C., the 'organic' conception of the social order has been advocated on numerous occasions. According to this much revered Roman Consul—who, in the characteristic words of The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'was known to be a man of moderate views'—every social rank has its 'proper place' in the great organism. The lower ranks should derive their satisfaction from the 'reflected glory' that, no matter how lowly, they are 'equally important' for the functioning of the body to which they belong.
This was, of course, a most powerful exercise in ideology. Legend has it that the protesting people were so moved by the Consul's 'moderate views' that they immediately abandoned their stand of collective defiance and returned to the place assigned to them.
Be that as it may, at least one historical fact is beyond dispute. Namely, that they remained tied to their 'proper place' in society in all those two-and-a-half-thousand years that elapsed since the delivery of Agrippa's paradigmatic State Sermon on the Sacred Mount, 'participating' in the reproduction of the established order through all its necessary adjustments to the changing conditions of domination.
What directly concerns us here is the specific role which ideology plays in this process of structural adjustments. For the successful reproduction of the conditions of domination could not take place without the most active intervention of powerful ideological factors on the side of maintaining the order in existence.
Naturally, the ruling ideology has a vested interest in the preservation of the status quo in which even the most glaring
ix Vissza