IDEOLOGY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Ideology

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/ˌaɪdiˈɑlədʒi/ Listen

noun

Ideology n.

The science of ideas.

(Metaph.) A theory of the origin of ideas which derives them exclusively from sensation. Note: By a double blunder in philosophy and Greek, idéologie... has in France become the name peculiarly distinctive of that philosophy of mind which exclusively derives our knowledge from sensation.

A set or system of theories and beliefs held by an individual or group, especially about sociopolitical goals and methods to attain them; in common usage, ideology is such a set of beliefs so strongly held by their adherents as to cause them to ignore evidence against such beliefs, and thus fall into error in this sense it is viewed as a negative trait; contrasted to pragmatism, and distinct from idealism.

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Etymology of 'Ideology'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ideology" Quotes from Famous Books

... elaborated in the famous work, published in 1795, "Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progres de l'esprit humain". This work first treated with explicit fulness the idea to which a leading role was to fall in the ideology of the nineteenth century. Condorcet's book reflects the triumphs of the Tiers etat, whose growing importance had also inspired Turgot; it was the political changes in the eighteenth century which led to the doctrine, emphatically formulated by Condorcet, that the masses ...

— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

... al-QADHAFI has espoused his own political system - a combination of socialism and Islam - which he calls the Third International Theory. Viewing himself as a revolutionary leader, he used oil funds during the 1970s and 1980s to promote his ideology outside Libya, even supporting subversives and terrorists abroad to hasten the end of Marxism and capitalism. Libyan military adventures failed, e.g., the prolonged foray of Libyan troops into the Aozou Strip in northern Chad was finally repulsed in 1987. Libyan support for terrorism decreased ...

— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... Europe broadcasts tell the people behind the iron curtain that communism is bad—as if they did not know this better than the RFE broadcasters do; but the broadcasts consistently support the programs, and present the ideology, of international socialism, always advocating the equivalent of a one-world socialist society as the solution to all problems. This is, of course, the communist solution. And it is also the solution desired by the ...

— The Invisible Government • Dan Smoot

... aid of many Muslims in the past—in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bosnia, and Kosovo, to name a few. The United States will work with such moderate and modern governments to reverse the spread of extremist ideology and those who seek to impose totalitarian ideologies on ...

— National Strategy for Combating Terrorism - February 2003 • United States

... "simplified," that is to say to have all people live the same kind of life, the appearance of a type, celebrated under the sarcastic name of "noble penitent" (meaning the titled man who is ashamed of his privileged position as if it were a humiliating and infamous thing), the politico-socialistic ideology of the first Slavophiles, still half conservative, but wholly democratic; all these things were the results of the manifestations which astonished Rostopchin and made the more intelligent class of Russians fraternize more with the masses. In our day, this tendency has been eloquently illustrated ...

— Contemporary Russian Novelists • Serge Persky

... journalists and volunteers, who under pre-bellum conditions led a rather retired life and made no claim to any importance, suddenly found themselves representative of whole corps and armies and felt that they were "leaders" of the revolution. The nebulousness of their political ideology fully corresponded with the formlessness of the revolutionary consciousness of the masses. These elements were extremely condescending toward us "Sectarians," for we expressed the social demands of the workers and the peasants most ...

— From October to Brest-Litovsk • Leon Trotzky