Ideological Illusions and their Cognitive Sources

In my paper I am dealing with an area less approached in the philosophy of culture: the crepuscular area where cognitive mechanisms intertwine with symbolic mechanisms, and in which knowledge and semiosis are intermingled. As I believe, the differences emphasized by the cultural studies focus only on the values and symbols, on the behavioral models and rituals; but what I intend to emphasize is that the real cultural differences target first and foremost the perception of the world and the meaning of life.In this paper I shall deal with five sources of cultural and ideological illusions – the technique of issue rising; the cultural paradigm; the ideological referential; the form of life; the life horizon. In my view, these very sources of illusion generate pictures of the world based on which individuals, professional groups and social classes, peoples and civilizations render the world and human life meaningful. When we talk of cognitive devices by means of which billions of men and women give a meaning to their own life, the distinctions between illusion and reality seems to become irrelevant…