p Social psychology is the aggregate of views, habits, feelings, moral features, emotions, illusions and delusions which arise in different classes, nations, social groups and professions under the impact of their immediate living and working conditions. For example, the immediate living and working conditions of the working class imbue it with such sociopsychological traits as hostility towards exploitation, awareness of the need to fight against the bourgeoisie, a sense of solidarity, organisation and collectivism. The thirst for profits, individualism and cruelty are the basic features of bourgeois psychology.

p Social psychology reflects the position of a class or social collective and their direct objectives and interests. At this stage consciousness is still incapable of broad scientific generalisations and often, remains on the surface of phenomena. Marx aptly characterised the state of the consciousness of the working class at the level of social psychology as the state of a “class in itself”. It had not yet become aware 362 of its place in society and of its historical mission of the grave-digger of capitalism and the builder of a new, socialist system. It is permeated solely with awareness of its hatred of the bourgeoisie and of the need to fight for its immediate economic interests. Only later, under the influence of socialist ideas and as a result of its participation in the revolutionary struggle, does the working class turn from a “class in itself" into a “class for itself" and becomes capable of scientifically understanding reality and mastering the scientific, Marxist ideology.

p Lenin made a profound scientific analysis of the psychology of the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, the bourgeois intelligentsia and the petty bourgeoisie.

p Without analysing social psychology it is impossible to understand the history of science and ideology. It is not enough to know the economy of a country in order to understand the history of scientific thought or the history of art in it. One has to be able to turn to social psychology whose careful investigation and understanding are essential for a materialistic interpretation of the history of ideology.

p Together with empirical, daily knowledge of the worldnature, society, man—social psychology comprises the first, the lowest level of the reflection of reality called ordinary consciousness. This consciousness is amorphous and is not differentiated into definite forms. Political, moral, religious views and knowledge are intertwined in it. In this sense ordinary consciousness is very close to individual consciousness. Nevertheless, it is a mass, collective consciousness. It originates spontaneously in large masses of people under the direct influence of the conditions of their life. Ordinary consciousness is the material out of which scientific, systematized consciousness, the second, higher level of reflection of reality is shaped. Ideology and social and natural sciences are scientific consciousness.

A synthesis of ordinary and theoretical consciousness is public opinion, i.e., the opinion of people on specific facts of reality—social being, politics and morality, science and religion, literature and art. In these opinions an ordinary, empirical approach to events in social life intertwines with a theoretical, scientific approach. A section of the next chapter treats science, its essence and the role it plays in society. But now we shall examine ideology.