Given below are a few phrases that may be used as definitions of ideology. The variety of ideas that are given by these phrases gives us an idea of how much goes into understanding the term. It serves several purposes in our analyses of culture and society.
Ideas determine our activities. Ideals are things of considerable value that we pursue as our goals. As a worldview, ideology is how we perceive or view the world. It is built from a set of ideas that we hold. Ideology as consciousness means there is a certain awareness or a way of looking at the world. But it is received one: it is not something totally of our own construction but one received from culture. Ideology is also called a body of doctrine. It is mostly used in religion and politics where there are doctrinaire rules to be followed at times. Ideology is also a systematic body of concepts. It means that the ideas and concepts cohere in a consistent and logical way. As a manner of thinking, ideology means there is a certain way of thinking. It is determined by all the above concepts / definitions.