Thanks to the great work done by different authors who, from different points of view, reflect on the human being. One of the leading thinkers in the history of philosophy is Karl Marx, who reflected on what he called false consciousness. One of the fundamental principles of his philosophy is that the fact of being social determines the conscience of the individual and not the other way around. In other words, it is not consciousness that conditions social being.
The author affirms that false consciousness refers to the way of thinking of individuals that is not consistent with the material conditions of existence, that is, there is a kind of internal deception, an opposition between the way of interpreting reality and reality. reality itself that has consequences in different areas of life, for example, in decision-making.
A person can assume a lifestyle that is not consistent with his situation, that is, a false conscience.
The very concept of "false consciousness" is already constitutively a critical concept, but to which, nevertheless, references are attributed that are supposed to be subject to a legality or necessity of the same order as the necessity that Espinosa attributed to the concatenation of ideas inappropriate and confusing. But with this, Marx and Engels have opened up fundamental problems that they themselves did not even have time to formulate. Because the idea of a "false consciousness" implies, of course, the idea of "consciousness", and neither Marx nor Engels offered a minimal analysis of this idea. They have even drawn mentalist uses (as when Marx exposes the differences between a bee and an architect who says that "the work is represented in his mind before doing it").
The concept of false consciousness, as we analyze it, should not be understood as the global attribute of any individual, group or institution, since it only wants to be applied with reference to the given contents of those individuals, groups or institutions. We will not say, therefore, that an individual, group or institution has, in general, false consciousness unless we understand some precise "parameter" (false religious consciousness, and even relative to a certain dogma or policy, or legal).
It is very likely that a certain false consciousness will radiate its falsehood onto other areas of consciousness, but it is possible that they will eventually remain intact. Men cannot be classified into those who have false conscience and those who consider it true. All men are subjects of false conscience, but not always under the same determination or in the same way.
