Destutt de Tracy (Antoine Louis Claude): 1754-1836

Leong Yew, Research Fellow, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore

POLITICAL DISCOURSE: THEORIES OF COLONIALISM AND POSTCOLONIALISM

Considered to be the person who coined the term, ideology. De Tracy originally refered to ideology as the "science of ideas," insisting that only through a rigorous ideological application -- one that was derived through empirical observation-- that the truth could be ascertained and false knowledges debunked. His conception of ideology has been replaced by others [q.v.]. Also see his work, Éléments d'idéologie (1801), available online in French at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique website.


[Postcolonial Web Overview] [Postcolonial Discourse Overview] 

Last Modified: 22 April, 2002