In order to indicate varieties of meaning Eagleton gives some definitions that are currently in circulation:

• the process of production of meanings, signs and values in social life;

• a body of ideas (not facts) characteristic of a particular social group or class;

• ideas which help to legitimate a dominant political power;

• forms of thought motivated by social interests;

• the medium in which conscious social actors make sense of their world;

• the process whereby social life is converted to a natural reality”.