"Mormon Student, Justice, ACLU Join Up"

[RJLipkin at aol.com]

We are arguing, I  would think, about the term "ideology" as it occurs in 
American political  discourse. To insist that the use of that term corresponds to 
a dictionary  definition is simply circular.  That very dictionary definition 
is what I'm  challenging as applied to American political discourse. 
Dictionaries don't  settle these matters and are unhelpful when engaging in conceptual 
 analysis. However, if we must play dictionary games, please look at  
Webster's Third New International Dictionary which defines "ideology,"  among other 
definitions, as "an extremist sociopolitical or philosophy  constructed wholly 
or in part on factitious or hypothetical ideational  bases."  Although, not 
the primary dictionary definition, I suggest that this  definition better 
reflects the idea of "ideology" as used in political  discourse. To suggest 
otherwise because one definition is given primacy of  place in a dictionary is simply 
question-begging.  We want to know what the  term "ideology" means in a 
context where theists and atheists are both accused  of holding ideological views. 
Dictionaries can't settle this  matter.
 
        However, even if we accept the definition of  "ideology" as “a 
systematic body of concepts…the integrated assertions,  theories, and aims that 
constitute a sociopolitical program” many atheists  are non-ideological, even 
according to this definition, because many atheists  believe there is no God, but 
that belief is not part of any sociopolitical  "system." It's simply one 
belief among many and may not even relate to any other  belief in a systematic way. 
That's why we find atheists who believe in  the necessity of an altruistic 
morality which corresponds in some important ways  to the Christian idea of  
"love." They do not believe in God, but they  believe in a morality. If they have 
any sociopolitical program, it is unrelated  to their atheism.    

Bobby

Robert Justin  Lipkin
Professor of Law
Widener University School of  Law
Delaware


Ratio Juris,  Contributor: _  http://ratiojuris.blogspot.com/_ 
(http://ratiojuris.blogspot.com/) 
Essentially Contested  America, Editor-In-Chief 
_http://www.essentiallycontestedamerica.org/_ (http://www.essentiallycontestedamerica.org/) 



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