Ideology

I just began reading Terry Eagleton's An Introduction to Ideology, and haven't finished Chapter 1 yet. In this chapter he made some interesting inquiries on the definition of ideology.

I haven't reached a conclusive definition of ideology (maybe it does not ever exist), but Eagleton used an interesting analogy, in which ideology is similar to literary works. Both are supported by some empirical facts, while the ``world view'' of them are not necessarily real. Eagleton claims that ideology must be based on some commonly accepted facts, but the interpretation and implications of the facts differ from one ideology to another, and minds in the context of one ideology will accept the world view part as real just like the empirical facts. Critics can criticise literary works' world view if it is different from theirs. The question: what if the works' world view is the same with theirs? Can they recognise its faults and criticise it as well?

Apart from this cognitive perspective, Eagleton also mentioned the understanding of ideology by a French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser. Althusser considered ideology in an affective way. He agrees that practices are real. But the justification of these practices is merely the expression of ``a will, a hope or a nostalgia''.

Seems Eagleton's cognitive hypothesis can better explain the political colour of ideology. It is consistent with my perception about ideology, that it is operated by a certain party or person to achieve certain political goals. However, Althusserism ideology provided another affective perspective, that ideology is the reflection of people's emotion. How to examine the correctness of this idea? In wars between ideologies, there are very few, if any, incidents that are determined by people's emotion, but interests. Interest of ideology is one thing cannot be explained by Althusserism when it is applied to a large number of people, such as a nation.