Between Ideology and Utopia*

This chapter explores in detail Ricoeur's concept of the social imaginary. This comprises the interplay of ideals, images, ideologies and Utopias informing our political unconscious. One of the most controversial aspects of the social imaginary is the role of ideology. Much of critical theory, from Marx and Engels to Althusser and Barthes, has equated ideology with false consciousness. A common task of critical hermeneutics, atheistic or theistic, is to debunk ideological inversions of the original relationship between the real and the imaginary. Ricoeur concludes by suggesting that what is needed is a hermeneutic imagination of non-totalization, capable of disabusing us of the twin extremes of dogmatic detachment and attachment. This requires a proper balance between ideology and utopia. Philosophical examples of this would be Hahermas's reinterpretation of the socialist tradition as motivated by a Utopian goal of unrestricted communication, or Ricoeur's own reinterpretation of the Judaeo-Christian promise as an eschatological project of universal liberty.