在恩格斯晚年关于历史唯物论的书信中,有一段对“意识形态”的论述,一直以来被看作是马克思主义经典作家以清晰明白的语言、定义的语式对“意识形态”的经典表述。但通过具体的文本分析发现,实际上它是对意识形态产生过程的说明,旨在揭露旧的意识形态产生的唯心主义认识论基础,并非是对这种意识形态本身“是什么”的规定。至于其中涉及的旧有意识形态“虚假性”问题,除了书信中所揭露的认识根源外,还有其相应的社会历史背景和阶级基础。实际上,就马克思恩格斯所批判的社会形态而言,否定性的经济基础总是会发挥其应有的作用从而使得人类社会面临虚假意识形态的蒙蔽。 In Engels’s epistle on the historical materialism in his later years, there is a period of “ideology” of the discourse, has always been seen as a classical Marxist language with a clear and clear definition of the language of “ideology” The classic expression. However, through specific textual analysis, it is found that it is actually a description of the process of ideological production and aims at exposing the idealistic epistemological foundation of the old ideology rather than the “what” of the ideology itself . As for the old ideology / “fakeness” involved in it, apart from the sources of cognition disclosed in the letters, there are also its corresponding social and historical background and class basis. In fact, as far as the social forms criticized by Marx and Engels are concerned, the negative economic basis will always play its due role so that the human society will be deceived by the false ideology.