From Suspicion To Affirmation: Paul Ricoeur and A Genetic Phenomenology of Ideology

This paper aims to shed light on the problem besetting ideology asestablished in the work of paul ricoeur. while the term ideology hastended to have negative connotations, ricoeur argues that ideology alsohas a positive, integrative function in the realms of social transformationand cultural imagination. thus, he questions the common connotationof ideology as an exclusively critical or negative term. following marx,weber, and geertz, ricoeur argues that ideology can be conceptualized inthree ways: distortion, legitimation, and integration. for him, ideology hasa function beyond dissimulation and legitimacy: that of maintaining groupidentity and group integration in society. ricoeur calls his approach in thelectures a “regressive analysis of meaning,” an “attempt to dig under thesurface of the apparent meaning to the more fundamental meanings”,and a “genetic phenomenology in the sense proposed by husserl in hiscartesian mediations” in order to recognize the claim of a concept whichis at first sight merely a polemical tool. the first three sections of thispaper investigate ricoeur’s account of ideology and his attempts to makethe term more “honest” through his three conceptions of it: distortion,legitimation and integration. the conclusion summarizes the major themesarticulated in those discussions, and suggests further directions to exploretoward the positive conceptualizing of ideology