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Ideologies can be thought to be sometimes perceived as being an "unified" body of historical information. A sort of body that reflects how an individual or a group will come to perceive the current state of things as well as future things.

However, since there definitely exists multiple strains of thought and not just one, then how is it possible to perceive things as coming from "one strain of thought" or claim that "just this one strain/thought exists (as a dominant one over others)"?

For example, if one bases political views on John Rawls' Social Contract theory for example, then why would this "necessarily" be a dominant view over some other views? Like what defines whether some idea is a "fixed" feature of the history (something that cannot be "erased" in the culture you're in) or whether it can be varied (e.g. you can replace Social Contract theory with some other idea).

Is the "choice" of what strain to use for solidifying one's worldview still freely choosable or are there some concepts that everyone in a culture must abide to (e.g. some political theories have relied on "divine rights").

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  • In general, we are not free to choose our "worldviews"; see e.g. the role of myth in Levi-Strauss structural anthropology : "they give sense (meaning) to the world". – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Mar 2 '17 at 13:30
  • @MauroALLEGRANZA Then who decides them, if not us? As an counter example, who decided Levi-Strauss' worldview if not Levi-Strauss? And if we go off-topic, then lets consider making another question or moving to chat. – mavavilj Mar 2 '17 at 13:32
  • Or perhaps Levi-Strauss relies on more than a priori statements? E.g. biology? – mavavilj Mar 2 '17 at 17:26
  • I am afraid I do not follow the question. Even if ideologies assert "divine rights" or "scientific communism", and adherence to them is repressively imposed, there are still those who do not abide by them. Nobody can "define", or even predict long term,what will stay "fixed" or what will be "varied" culturally. And I am completely lost on what "history as one body" means. – Conifold Mar 3 '17 at 23:42
  • @Conifold I'm asking, whether ideas or ideologies can be treated as "fixed" inside a culture, because I've heard argumentation of this kind. E.g. using social contract theory in a way as if it was an ultimate theory and whose validity comes from historical development (that in the history the social contract theory has been discovered to lead to a better world). Similarly referring to some kind of religious concepts as "fundamental" would be this kind of argumentation. – mavavilj Mar 4 '17 at 6:32

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