ABSTRACT

Antecedents of a notion of false consciousness can be found as far back as Plato’s myth of the cave in Book VII of the Republic. Francis Bacon relied upon Plato’s notion of false appearances when he developed his doctrine of “idols,” errors into which the human mind is prone to fall and which impede human progress and scientific knowledge. However, it is the Marxian idea that the masses under capitalism suffer from false consciousness by not knowing their own best interests, which has had a lasting impact on modern revolutionary thought.