IndexIntroductionThe meaning of political philosophy and political ideologyThe nature of political philosophy and ideologyThe functions of political philosophy and ideologyConclusionIntroductionThe body of knowledge that we call politics is broad and includes several independent but at the same time disciplines related units, which tend to be confused. In this essay we will conduct a comparison between two independent political units: political philosophy and political ideology. We investigate the similarities and differences between these two units to have a clear understanding of each of them and its role in society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Meaning of Political Philosophy and Political Ideology Political philosophy is an ancient study that can be traced back to ancient Greece. Studies in political philosophy were conducted by highly regarded philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. According to M.Faure(2008:3), “the object of political philosophy is to explicitly clarify political phenomena with regards to general thoughts regarding political issues”. In the political way of thinking, general thoughts or facts regarding government issues are not bound by time or space, but, nevertheless, will expose the truth of political issues with the goal that reality can be understood and judged appropriately. An example of a question handled by political philosophy is the question of whether there are thoughts and realities about authority that could be legitimate for every political framework. Are there such thoughts or facts, or are there different realities about authority that should be legitimate for various political frameworks and historical periods? Political ideology according to S.Botha (2007:51) “We can define the concept of ideology as a theory that consists of a complete set of beliefs (usually the product of values) about the social, political and economic life of human beings” . An example of an ideology is liberalism, for liberals the liberty or freedom of an individual is the central value. The individual is considered more important than society, since society is simply a collection of individuals. Jackson and Jackson (1997:151) state that "ideologies are based on the teachings of leading political thinkers and philosophers who seek truth derived from first principles through logical argumentation." When considering John Locke's political theory, this indicates that Jackson and Jackson were right in their observation. The nature of political philosophy and ideology Political philosophy is composed of three separate dimensions, they are 1) analytical (logical), empirical (factual). and normative (moral). According to SL Kant (2008:6), we must distinguish between these dimensions when we read the work of philosophers to identify the kinds of claims that are made. For example, the death penalty is wrong. This is a normative statement because it reflects my attitude regarding the morality of the death penalty. The statement; Ramaphosa is the head of state of South Africa exemplifies an empirical statement. Empirical statements describe or explain phenomena. A typical example of an analytical statement is: “The head of the Constitutional Court is the head of the judiciary of South Africa”. This statement is logical because it would be contradictory to deny it. Political ideology is also multidimensional and always contains statements about what human nature is and what it should be. Since ideologies deal with the ideal society, they always provide us with an explanation about the nature of society. There are some who argue that the community is before the individual (collectivists) such as Karl Marx, as well as those who believe that a community is.