In Marxist theory, false consciousness is a term describing the ways in which

material A material is a matter, substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an Physical object, object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical property, physical ...

, ideological, and

institution An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...

al processes are said to mislead members of the proletariat and other

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

actors within capitalist societies, concealing the exploitation and inequality intrinsic to the social relations between classes. As such, it legitimizes and normalizes the existence of different social classes. According to Marxists, false consciousness is consciousness which is misaligned from reality. Thus, it is a serious impediment to human progress and correcting it is a major focus of

dialectical materialism Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of scien ...

Origin of terminology

Although Marx never used the term "false consciousness" in his writings, he made references to workers having misguided or harmful ideas, and he suggested how those ideas get reinforced by powerful elites. For example, in an 1870 letter to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt, Marx discussed the antagonism between English proletarians and Irish proletarians that was rampant in his day: Marx considered this type of manipulated animosity among workers to be, in Ashley Crossman's words, "the opposite of class consciousness. Individualistic rather than collective in nature, it produces a view of oneself as a single entity engaged in competition with others of one's social and economic standing, rather than as part of a group with unified experiences, struggles, and interests."

The coinage of "false consciousness" is commonly traced to an 1893 letter from

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Franz Mehring. It was ten years after Marx's death. Engels was seeking to explain how ideological notions come about, as he and Marx had understood it: Joseph McCarney notes in "Ideology and False Consciousness" that Engels was referring to "a quite specific kind of cognitive failure on the part of an individual, a failure of self-awareness, a lack of insight into the 'motive forces' of their own thinking." Engels was not using the term in its full modern sense, i.e., as the mindset of a subordinate class which wittingly or unwittingly adopts the ideology of the

ruling class In sociology, the ruling class of a society is the social class who set and decide the political and economic agenda of society. In Marxist philosophy, the ruling class are the class who own the means of production in a given society and apply ...

. As it turns out, Engels only made this one reference to false consciousness. He died two years later and never had an opportunity to expound on its meaning and significance.

Later development

It wasn't until the 1923 book History and Class Consciousness by Hungarian philosopher

György Lukács György Lukács (born Bernát György Löwinger; ; ; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, literary critic, and Aesthetics, aesthetician. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an inter ...

that the concept of false consciousness was explored in depth. Ron Eyerman writes that Lukács defined false consciousness as "the distorted perception and beliefs an individual or a social class acquires through their life activities in capitalist society." Lukács didn't regard false consciousness as a static condition but rather as a dialectical stage in the movement toward a true class consciousness. In the 1930s, the Italian Marxist theorist

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , ; ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosophy, Marxist philosopher, Linguistics, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, Political philosophy, political the ...

emphasized how false consciousness is a tool of ideological control. In his Prison Notebooks, he introduced the notion of cultural hegemony, the process under capitalism whereby the ruling classes create particular norms, values, and stigmas, amounting to a culture in which their continued dominance is considered both commonsensical and beneficial. In Eyerman's assessment, Gramsci "sought to explain the hold bourgeois ideologies had over the working class" and that " nymovement for progressive social change under such conditions must work to re-educate and transform the false consciousness that makes hegemonic rule possible." The false consciousness concept was further developed by Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and the early

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical theory. It is associated with the University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, Institute for Social Research founded in 1923 at the University of Frankfurt am Main ...

of critical theory, as well as by French philosopher Henri Lefebvre. In the latter part of the 20th century, "false consciousness" began to be used in a non-Marxian context, specifically in relation to oppression based on sexual orientation, gender, race and ethnicity.

Structuralist interpretation

During the late 1960s and 1970s,

structuralism Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...

gained popularity among academics and public intellectuals. In his 1970 essay " Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)",

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...

offered a structuralist interpretation of ideology. He asserted that the "ideological apparatus" of the capitalist state⁠—particularly that of the education system⁠—inculcated a false consciousness which favored obedience and conformity.

Other explanations

In recent decades, numerous scholars and political analysts have proposed explanations for why false consciousness arises and proliferates. In a 1984 paper, the economist Marshall I. Pomer argued that members of the proletariat disregard the true nature of class relations because of their faith in the possibility, and even likelihood, of

upward mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given socie ...

. Such faith is necessary according to economics theory with its presumption of rational agency; otherwise wage laborers would not support social relations antithetical to their self-interest. Some political analysts focus on where people's understanding of their interests originates. In an essay entitled "False Consciousness", Michael Parenti challenges the assumption that working-class Americans freely define their interests but then choose, for various reasons, to think and act against those interests. Instead he writes that "the development of one's own interests and political consciousness in general may be stunted or distorted by misinformation, disinformation, and a narrow but highly visible mainstream political agenda that rules out feasible alternatives." Parenti's contention is that ideological confusion is being propagated in the nation's politics and mass media and thereby causes people to misjudge what their real interests are. Jon Wiener makes a similar point in his '' Dissent'' article "Working-Class Republicans and 'False Consciousness'". He says that Thomas Frank's influential 2004 book '' What's the Matter with Kansas?'' was to a large extent an examination of how false consciousness had spread across the poorest counties of the

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

states: "He rankshows how the Republicans and their media voices⁠—

Rush Limbaugh Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative political commentator who was the host of ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nati ...

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, and so on⁠—appeal to ordinary people with a class-conscious anger at 'the elite.' This elite is not the capitalist class; it is the liberals, who are held responsible for the 'decline' in 'values' that voters are called on to reverse."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:False Consciousness Marxist theory Error

Origin of terminology

Later development

Structuralist interpretation

Other explanations

See also

References