What is Ideology? A Conversation with Mark Shiffman and James Matthew Wilson

Professor Mark Shiffman and Professor James Matthew Wilson on May 2, 2024 at the University Club of Chicago. In his new book, "What is Ideology?", political theorist Mark Shiffman has studied the history of the concept and identified it as a distinctly modern phenomenon. Shiffman argues that ideological thinking attempts to subject all reality to a narrow and reductive schema in order to produce a redemptive social-political order and engineer a new type of human being. Moreover, he explains how our own imprecise use of the term makes us even more susceptible to ideological control. Shiffman discussed these topics with poet and cultural critic James Matthew Wilson. They traced the history of the term ideology, discuss its deforming effects on political life and the soul, and suggest how “non-ideological thinking” can be restored by drawing on resources from the classical and Christian traditions of philosophy, theology, art, and literature.