Ideology: A Meaning in Motion

What do we really mean when we say ‘ideology’? Today, the term often refers to rigid beliefs, political bias, or distorted thinking. Yet when it first appeared at the end of the 18th century, it meant something very different: a rigorous science of ideas, developed during the Enlightenment by Antoine Destutt de Tracy. This talk traces the transformation of the word ‘ideology’ across time, focusing primarily on French thinkers – from Destutt de Tracy to Napoléon, and later Louis Althusser and Georges Canguilhem – while also engaging with the decisive intervention of Karl Marx. More broadly, it explores a fundamental question: do words ever have fixed meanings, or are they constantly reshaped by the social and political contexts in which they are used?