Annotation
The course deals with ideology as a special phenomenon which points to the rooting of human thinking in human existence with its social structure and power relations that always determine and influence thinking to a certain extent. We will analyse the phenomenon of ideology in its two basic forms, which represent the so-called “neutral” and “negative” (or “evaluative”) concept of ideology.
In doing so, we will focus on the connection between the two forms to show how pathological forms of ideologies, such as the totalitarian ones, emerge from ideology in a neutral sense, which is connected with the existence of social groups. In particular, the phenomenon of ideology in a negative sense will then interest us in terms of its connection with untruths and lies.
We will examine ideology as a special case where untruth or falsehood do not concern an individual judgement or proposition, but where they affect human thinking in its overall structure, and through it the whole of human life. We will read and interpret selected texts by authors who contribute in various ways to clarify these issues, such as Karl Marx, Karl Mannheim, Hannah Arendt, Paul Ricoeur, Václav Havel and Ladislav Hejdánek.