The concept of ideology

The concept of ideology is not an ordinary concept that expresses a tangible reality in a comprehensive description, nor is it a concept derived from axioms that finds a purely abstract limit. Rather, it is a social and historical concept, and therefore it bears within it the effects of developments, conflicts, and numerous social and political debates. It represents a "accumulation of meanings," similar in this regard to other core concepts such as the state, or freedom, or matter, or human being... Who today can give a definitive, formal, or absolute definition of the state without referring to history, society, economics, and political theories? Thus, every discussion about the concept of ideology requires examining its origin and development, and consequently the related philosophical doctrines. Within this methodology, the researcher in this study attempted to outline the broad lines of the background of the concept, aiming to clarify the embedded meanings within it, which dominate the mind of anyone who uses it today, even if they are not consciously aware of them. The researcher’s goal is to enable proper use of the concept of ideology within its appropriate boundaries, if not to dispense with it altogether.