From Ideological Critique to the Methods and Morals of Science

Abstract

This much I recently learned: don't expect your audience to react to what you say when you talk about ideological critique. Some people love anything with “ideology” in it. They will congratulate you for every use of that term. Others hate the very word and they will shower you with questions they had ready before you even started. I can sympathize with both, I really can; “ideology” is an exciting topic, but that is small comfort if there is something you want to get across. So let me say clearly and right form the start: what I am going to do here is quite boring for those who are heavily into ideological critique, and it is grist off the mill for those who hate it.I will discuss what people mean when they use the phrase “ideological critique” and I will suggest that they talk about different things at different occasions. Each of those things can be important but they should be kept apart because what one ought to do about it is different in each case. For that reason, the conceptual scheme I will propose is relevant both for theoretical and for practical reasons.