[FRA:] Ideology? -- On Voluntary Servitude (1)

[Ralph Dumain]

"Volunteered slavery . . . is something that we all know" -- Rahsaan 
Roland Kirk

                    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006IT4N/qid=1053316669/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-0630343-0672653?v=glance&s=music

Rosen, Michael. On Voluntary Servitude: False Consciousness and the 
Theory of Ideology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.

The premiss of this book is very irritating but could prove to be 
instructive and even useful for one of my projects.

According to Rosen, there are two fundamental divisions in the 
approaches to ideology, neither of which he believes in anymore, 
based on: (1) collective social subject (neo-Hegelian), (2) process 
without a subject (structuralist).

For this we can thank the baleful influence of analytical 
marxism--principally Cohen but also Elster.  Cohen is, says Rosen, 
inadequate in his understanding of ideology though consistent with 
accepted positivist criteria.

Rosen sees Marx trying to do things at once, which don't ultimately 
work.  Rosen sees the importance of background beliefs, in this case:

(1) Societies are self-maintaining entities;
(2) This is accomplished by means of false consciousness.

If the ideological nature of the concept of ideology can be shown, is 
this circular reasoning? (p. 11)

Rosen is partly inspired by Nietzsche.  Analyzes the providentialism 
and rationalism that lies at the basis of "ideology" as a notion. 
(13) I suppose Nietzsche is in opposition to this.

The received notion of the origins of social science is wrong. (14) 
Sociology comes not out of social physics but organicism. (15)

There are some figures who buck the overriding western philosophical 
trend of the rationalist conception of the self, e.g. Blake (18). 
There are alternatives to rationalism: (1) irrationalism, (2) 
pessimism, (3) anti-rationalism. (19-20)

Marx's conception of human nature and its ultimate ability to control 
its social life is rationalist. (21)

Hegel = providentialism + rationalism. Marx is the first to attempt a 
thorough purge of providentalism from his framework. (24)

Marx provides 5 models of ideology.

Adorno remains Hegelian, but Benjamin is immune to Hegel. 
(26)  Benjamin provides an original explanation: ideology is mimetic.

Benjamin and Adorno are important because they provide an alternative 
to rationalism. DofE continues the Nietzschean tradition. The 
collapse of the Eastern bloc pulled the rug out from Western Marxism, 
now having lost the scapegoat for its failures. Marxism will now have 
to be carefully scrutinized in light of future possibilities. (27-8)