ABSTRACT
A term introduced into English as a version of the French term "idéologie", which had been used in 1796 by the rationalist philosopher Antoine Destutt de Tracy—who thus came to be known as the primary example of an "idéologue"—in order to redefine the philosophy of mind as a "science of ideas" rather than an exercise in *metaphysics. It soon came to be used, like *mythology, to refer to an assembly of ideas rather than a general theoretical study, usually with reference to political ideologies held as doctrines, often with specific reference to revolutionary or socialist ideas. To describe a notion as "ideological" then became, in practice if not in theory, tantamount to calling it "false". This kind of usage was deliberately turned around by Karl *Marx and Friedrich Engels in Die Deutsche Ideologie (written 1845–1846; trans. as The German Ideology), who used the term in their condemnatory critique of conservative ideas and ideals.
