ABSTRACT
In the literature of the sociology of knowledge, and more especially in the Marxist contribution to it, the concept of ‘false consciousness’ occupies an important place. Now this catch-phrase can be given two meanings which should be kept apart, even though they are undoubtedly akin. A consciousness can be false either in the subjective or in the objective sense of the word. A state of mind may be out of harmony either with the man who entertains it, or with the reality to which it refers. In the first case, we have false pretences, in the second, factual error. The remedy must always be more realism, but in the one instance it will have to be more realism about oneself, and in the other more realism about the world before one’s eyes or under one’s feet.
