ABSTRACT
An ambivalence toward “ideas” has characterized sociology since its beginnings. Karl Marx insisted that ideas must be understood, in some more or less degree, as derived from the economic and political interests of a ruling class, and hence constituted ideologies. Nonetheless, he never doubted their capacity to influence thought and action, indeed even to sustain a false consciousness. Max Weber argued that ideas regarding the origins of suffering and injustice have influenced the long-term development of the world’s great religions. However, to him, “ideal and material” interests hold sway in the short term and the power of ideas, even if articulated by charismatic figures, is generally routinized and circumscribed over a generation or two. And while Durkheim viewed structural forces (especially the division of labor) as constitutive for the solidarity of modern societies, it seems that ideas can be easily incorporated into his definition of the collective consciousness of traditional societies: “beliefs and sentiments.”
