`False Consciousness'

Abstract

The assumption that there is a break between what people think they are doing and how they are living, i.e. what is `really' happening to them, is the cornerstone of a sociological explanation of alienation. This assumption has been subjected to criticism, both from the point of view of quantitative researchers who ask people directly about their alienation and philosophers who reproach critical theorists for showing disrespect for people's agency. Thus, what Marx called `ideology' and Lukács `false consciousness' is discredited, and with them the concept of alienation. The article sketches discussions of the mind—body dichotomy; then presents sociological approaches to mind and body. In conclusion, it shows that an approach based on an assumption of mind—body dualism establishes the viability of the concept of `false consciousness' and thus clarifies the social structural validity of the concept of alienation.