UNE philosopher David Livingstone Smith gives talk in Berlin, Germany

On May 22, 2017, David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, gave a talk titled “Ideology Reconsidered: A Functional Perspective” at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. The talk was part of “The Philosophy of Social Functions” lecture series.

Smith focused on one mainstream conception of ideology, sometimes referred to as the functional conception, which frames ideologies as beliefs (and associated practices) that have the function of bringing about the oppression of certain social groups. He argued that ambiguity exists in the functional definition, as there are two different views of what functions are: According to the causal account, the function of a thing is what it does, while according to the teleological approach, the function of a thing is what it is for.

By drawing on work in the field of the philosophy of biology, Smith contended that the teleological conception of ideology is preferable to its casual alternative.

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