The way of interpreting the relationship between life and ideas leads to suspicion. Suspicion, a broad term in philosophy is the thought that our ideas are not sovereign and that they are grounded to ideologies, doubt, and the reality that is hidden behind a mask. The belief that the ideas originate from elsewhere as opposed to doubt where the question opens in order to answer it, in general, a method of knowing.
Suspicion has shaped modernism in a rather complicated way. Modernism as known is the reaction to the vast changes due to modernity. Suspicion played a vital role in influencing the period of modernism. Modernism related to material life and led to obvious everydayness. Our unconscious life led to an understanding of reality and metaphysics. Everyday life in modernism was governed by suspicion on the roots of reality and the metaphysics. Modernism led to a raised level of self-consciousness and localised truth. It was also a period of struggle between ideologies, suspicion, and doubt.
The period of modernism saw philosophers having a difference of opinion on suspicion of reality. Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx have been called the ‘Masters of suspicion’. However, each had their own way of interpreting and defining suspicion. Although they agreed with each other on certain terms, it was always their set of opinions that had to be preferred.
Nietzsche was suspicious of Value, Freud was suspicious of Desire and Marx was suspicious of Justice. However, it is Marx and Freud’s theory on suspicion that is complicated. They are suspicious of reason and the sovereignty of our ideas. They believe that the origin of our ideas is not an idea itself. Freud is suspicious of desire, he states that desire has a history that is difficult to understand and he terms this Displacement. The process of displacement is obscure and is known as the ‘unconscious’. The unconscious leads to the Id, ego, and superego, where the ego is compromised and is the balance between the other two psychical processes.
Unconscious wishes try to assert themselves. The unconscious mind disguises itself as dreams. It wears a mask and the reality is hidden behind. It is this history of desire that Freud is suspicious of. This is a suspicion of obvious everydayness, the suspicion about desire revealing itself in different ways in daily life.
Marx is a political thinker. He concerns himself with ideology, ideology meaning ‘falsifying ideas’. He believes ideology is ‘false unconsciousness’. Ideology always means the ideas of the ruling class. Marx is suspicious of capitalism and brings in three questions of suspicion to capitalism: 1. Is capitalism compatible with human nature? 2. Do markets passively respond to needs? 3. Do markets determine the value of commodities? Marx strongly believes in communism.
Both philosophers share their suspicion and make us think about it. It is concerned with everyday life and cannot be ignored. These philosophers reject illogical thinking. They neither deny nor accept the opinions of other philosophers. Traditional philosophy is the method of monotonous thinking methods as opposed to modern philosophy where suspicion, doubt, and ideologies come into being.
Marx and Freud are suspicious of obvious everydayness. They believe reality cannot be defined, it changes with time and is hidden behind a mask. The other philosophers believe reason cannot prove it exists.
These philosophers offer the truth behind the mask. They make us understand that reality is not always real and it is a disguised form. Freud’s definitions are more related to everyday life than Marx’s philosophy on capitalism. Freud talks about desire, emotions, and dreams. It is easier to relate to and understand Freud than the other philosophers since he deals with human psychology.
These concepts of philosophers have gone a long way in clearing the misconceptions of these terms in philosophy. They made it clear in their way and the assumptions are left to the readers.
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