ABSTRACT
The primary feature of ideological captivity can be elucidated by reference to the concept of ‘false consciousness’. This concept refers to the condition of holding beliefs that are both false and compose a world-picture which legitimatizes certain oppressive social institutions, where this condition is a non-contingent product of inhabiting a society characterised by these social institutions. In so far as ideological captivity is characterised by agents both holding false beliefs which legitimize oppressive social institutions and being blocked in some way from recognizing the falsity of the beliefs that they hold, the aim of the practice of ideologiekritik– as its very name proclaims – is to enable them to recognize this fact. Genealogy is an attempt at moral or ethical or political criticism. Such criticism, if it is not be irrational, nihilistic, relativist, etc. must involve the articulation of normative criteria concerning the justification of moral norms and/or the legitimacy of social institutions and practices.
