¿Towards “False Consciousness” or towards “Class Consciousness”? Notes concerning ideology in Marx’s Works

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on the notion of ideology in Marx’s work, and it attempts to follow the development carried out by the author in order to unravel its significance. The following texts are used as reference material: The German ideology, written with Engels, and Capital, the first chapters in particular.Two focuses of analysis are proposed. On the one hand, starting from the assumption that Capital is the work with which Marx achieves the highest level of scientific development around the concept of ideology as the individual’s mode of consciousness, ideology is presented as the estrangement of consciousness within capital as the general social relation within the capitalist mode of production; and consequently, the working class, as holder of the need to supersede capitalism, does not need to develop its own class ideology but move forward critically over its estrangement. On the other hand, the legal system constitutes the set of legal forms in which the capitalist social relation is expressed, and has an ideological function; for a criticism of the “roots” of such social relation, it will not be worth formulating a critical theory of law but a critique of law instead.