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SOC444 Sociological Theory: Karl Mannheim

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1998, 2000 by Ronald Keith Bolender. 2. Karl Mannheim. 1893-1947. Born in Budapest, Hungary ... Hungary. Germany. France. Fled Germany in 1933 because of the ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: SOC444 Sociological Theory: Karl Mannheim

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SOC444 Sociological TheoryKarl Mannheim
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Karl Mannheim

1893-1947
Born in Budapest, Hungary
Only child
Father--Hungarian
Mother--German
Education
Hungary
Germany
France
Fled Germany in 1933 because of the Nazis

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Sociology of Knowledge
This branch of sociology studies the relation
between thought and society and is concerned with
the social or existential conditions of knowledge
(Coser 1971429).
Coser, Lewis A. 1971. Masters of Sociological
Thought Ideas in Historical and Social Context.
New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

existential 1 Of, relating to, or affirming
existence 2 a grounded in existence or the
experience of existence EMPIRICAL b having
being in time and space

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Thinking is an activity that must be related to
other social activity within a structural frame.
To Mannheim, the sociological viewpoint seeks
from the very beginning to interpret individual
activity in all spheres within the context of
group experience (Mannheim 193627).
Mannheim, Karl. 1936. Ideology and Utopia. New
York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Thinking is never a privileged activity free from
the effects of group life therefore, it must be
understood and interpreted within its construct.

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

No given individual confronts the world and, in
striving for the truth, constructs a world view
out of the data of his experience. . . . It is
much more correct that knowledge is from the very
beginning a co-operative process of group life,
in which everyone unfolds his knowledge within a
framework of a common fate, a common activity,
and the overcoming of common difficulties
(Mannheim 193626).

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Ideology and Utopia
Ideology
Those total systems of thought held by society's
ruling groups that obscure the real conditions
and thereby preserve the status quo.
Utopia
Total systems of thought are forged by oppressed
groups interested in the transformation of
society. From the utopian side, the purpose of
social thought is not to diagnose the present
reality but to provide a rationally justifiable
system of ideas to legitimate and direct
change.
Mannheim was a Conflict Theorist.

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Relativism and Relationalism
Relativism
More on a psychological/individual
levelknowledge/truth is subjective per the
individual
Relationalism
Takes into account the influence of social
factors, status, class, sociohistorical position

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Methods of Dealing with Cultural Objects or
Intellectual Phenomena
From the inside
So that their immanent meanings are disclosed to
the investigator
From the outside
As a reflection of the societal process in which
the thinker is inevitably enmeshed
Knowledge is conceived as existentially determined

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Mannheim undertook to generalize Marxs
programmatic orientation to inquire into the
connection of . . . philosophy with . . . reality
(Marx and Engles 19396), and to analyze the ways
in which systems of ideas depend on the social
position--particularly the class positions--of
their proponents.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engles. 1939. The German
Ideology. New York International Publishers.

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

In the Marxian formulation, attention was called
to the functions of ideology for the defense of
class privileges, and to the distortion and
falsification of ideas that derived from the
privileged positions of bourgeois thinkers. In
contrast to this interpretation of bourgeois
ideology, Marxs own ideals were held by the
Marxists to be true and unbiased by virtue of
their being an expression of a class--the
proletariat--that had no privileged interests to
defend.

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Mannheim did not make this distinction between
various systems of ideas. He allowed for the
probability that all ideas, even truths, were
related to, and hence influenced by, the social
and historical situation from which they emerged.
The very fact that each thinker is affiliated
with particular groups in society--that he
occupies a certain status and enacts certain
social roles--colors his intellectual outlook.
VERY IMPORTANT STATEMENTTHINK ABOUT IT!

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Men do not confront the objects of the world from
the abstract levels of a contemplating mind as
such, nor do they do so exclusively as solitary
beings. On the contrary, they act with and
against one another in diversely organized
groups, and while doing so they think with and
against each other (Mannheim 19363).

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Mannheim defined the sociology of knowledge as a
theory of the social or existential conditioning
of thought. To him all knowledge and all ideas
are bound to a location, though to different
degrees, within the social structure and the
historical process. At times a particular group
can have fuller access to the understanding of a
social phenomenon than other groups, but no group
can have total access to it. Ideas are rooted in
the differential location in historical time and
social structure of their proponents so that
thought is inevitably perspectivistic.
VERY IMPORTANT STATEMENTTHINK ABOUT IT!

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

. . . Perspective . . . is something more than a
merely formal determination of thinking. It
signifies the manner in which one views an
object, what one perceives in it, and how one
construes it in his thinking. Perspective also
refers to qualitative elements in the structure
of thought, elements which must necessarily be
overlooked by a purely formal logic. It is
precisely these factors which are responsible for
the fact that two persons, even if they apply the
same formal-logical rules, may judge the same
object very differently (Mannheim 1936244).

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Like the proverbial seven blind men trying to
describe the properties of an elephant, persons
viewing a common object from dissimilar angles of
vision rooted in their different social location
are apt to arrive at different cognitive
conclusions and different value judgements. Human
thought is situationally relative.

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Problem of Generations Zeitlin (1997381-383)
New participants in the cultural process are
emerging
Former participants in that process are
continually disappearing
Members of any one generation can participate
only in a temporally limited section of the
historical process
It is therefore necessary continually to transmit
the accumulated cultural heritage
The transition from generation to generation is a
continuous process
Zeitlin, Irving M. 1997. Ideology and the
Development of Sociological Theory. 6th ed. Upper
Saddle River, NJ Prentice Hall.

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

Remember Comtes Law of Human Progress and the
sociological assumption of progressive
change?----The sociology of knowledge (especially
the problem of generations) follows the logic of
this assumption.

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge

A good example of this idea is a review of the
concept (definition) of Nazarene membership from
the 1st generation to the 5th generation.
How has the definition and related cultural
expectations changed? (Think in terms of rules,
standards, and definition of the holiness
lifestyle.)
How has the knowledge of the culture changed?
Is different? What has been lost? What has been
added?

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Karl MannheimSociology of Knowledge