word ideology has been used: As a collection of certain ideas with certain kinds of content, usually normative; As the form or internal logical structure that ideas have within a set; By the role ideas play in human-social interaction; By the role ideas play in the structure of an organization; As meaning, whose purpose is persuasion; and As the locus of social interaction. For Willard A. Mullins, an ideology should be contrasted with the related (but different) issues of utopia and historical myth. An ideology is composed of four basic characteristics: it must have power over cognition; it must be capable of guiding one's evaluations; it must provide guidance towards action; and it must be logically coherent. Terry Eagleton outlines (more or less in no particular order) some definitions of ideology: The process of production of meanings, signs and values in social life A body of ideas characteristic of a particular social group or class Ideas that help legitimate a dominant political power False ideas that help legitimate a dominant political power Systematically distorted communication Ideas that offer a position for a subject Forms of thought motivated by social interests Identity thinking Socially necessary illusion The conjuncture of discourse and power The medium in which conscious social actors make sense of their world Action-oriented sets of beliefs The confusion of linguistic and phenomenal reality Semiotic closure The indispensable medium in which individuals live out their relations to a social structure The process that converts social life to a natural reality German philosopher Christian Duncker called for a "critical reflection of the ideology concept." In his work, he strove to bring the concept of ideology into the foreground, as well as the closely connected concerns of epistemology and history, defining ideology in terms of a system of presentations that explicitly or implicitly claim to absolute truth. Marxist interpretation Marx's analysis sees ideology as a system of falsehoods deliberately promulgated by the ruling class as a means of self-perpetuation. In the Marxist base and superstructure model of society, base denotes the relations of production and modes of production, and superstructure denotes the dominant ideology (i.e. religious, legal, political systems). The economic base of production determines the political superstructure of a society. Ruling class-interests determine the superstructure and the nature of the justifying ideology—actions feasible because the ruling class control the means of production. For example, in a feudal mode of production, religious