ABSTRACT
If ideology were only a species of myth, it would scarcely have the power of attracting the intellectuals of the modern world. The Mosaic myth is an all-essential ingredient in ideology, but the myth, in modern times, must be embedded in scientific, empirical as well as philosophic arguments. An ideology must therefore enlist a certain minimum of sociological argument; it must at least avail itself of a minimum perception of social reality, some empirical facts which will lend at least a partial credence to its assertions; when the ideology proclaims a given class, nation, race, sex or group as chosen for a mission, it must preserve some minimal connection with reality; a myth altogether detached from reality can never do service in an ideology. This is the generative symbiosis in ideology of myth and science: an empirical content embedded in the ideology, yet always mythologized. How then can these two ingredients be separated and distinguished? In practice we can use a method of qualitative analysis in the chemistry of ideologies. Let us consider five empirical scientific propositions and their ideological counterparts in Marxism:
