A reconstruction of the notion of ideology in German ideology on the basis of the philosophy of history

The present paper offers, first, a characterization of the Marxian notion of ideology, implicitly and explicitly developed from a materialist conception of history in The German Ideology, all of the above from the perspective of the philosophy of history. To this aim, secondly, the projects of philosophy of history in Hegel and Marx are compared, taking as a criterion of contrast the characterization of substantive philosophies of history developed by authors such as Carl Hempel and Arthur Danto. The main conclusion reached with this analysis is, in third term, that Danto and Hempel´s criticism of the substantive philosophy of history does not affect the Marxian historical-philosophical approach (in contrast with what happens in Hegel), because Marx does not have as a subject of history the deployment of the Idea but the action of human individuals who act in the world to meet their needs, realize and develop their institutions.