False Consciousness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22369796 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Brian Starks (0000-0002-7872-0935, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Pages | 1-3 |
| Publication date | 2017-09-22 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | OTHER |
| Venue | The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosf006.pub2 |
| OpenAlex | W4233453570 |
| ISBN | 9781405165518 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 3 |
The term “false consciousness” was first coined by Friedrich Engels; there is no evidence that Karl Marx himself ever used it in his writing. The term's initial appearance in print was in a letter written by Engels to Franz Mehring in 1893. The concept, as developed in Engels's letter and in his later writings, is rooted in the earlier writings of Marx and Engels in The German Ideology . While theorists have debated whether Marx himself would have accepted the precise term “false consciousness,” the concept is closely tied to Marx's notion of a “dominant ideology” and is useful for understanding Marx's theory of historical change. As with many sociological ideas, the meaning of false consciousness has varied and changed over time as new theorists have drawn on it and as these new formulations have been challenged and contested
Consciousness · Epistemology · German · Ideology · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Reflexive pronoun · Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Political theory and Gramsci · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
|---|