Karl Mannheim

SYA 3010 Sociological
Theory:

Karl Mannheim

© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith
Thursday, February 28, 2013 Bolender 1

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

Karl Mannheim:
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
1971:429).
Coser, Lewis A. 1971. Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in
Historical and Social Context. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.

Karl Mannheim:

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


Karl Mannheim:

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 1936:27).
Mannheim, Karl. 1936. Ideology and Utopia. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.

Karl Mannheim:

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


Karl Mannheim:

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 1936:26).

Karl Mannheim:
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.

Karl Mannheim:

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

Karl Mannheim:

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


Karl Mannheim:

Mannheim undertook to generalize Marx’s
programmatic orientation to inquire into the
connection of . . . philosophy with . . . reality
(Marx and Engles 1939:6), 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.

Karl Mannheim:
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, Marx’s 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.


Karl Mannheim:
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 STATEMENT…THINK ABOUT
IT!

Karl Mannheim:

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
1936:3). © 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith

Karl Mannheim:
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 STATEMENT…THINK ABOUT
IT!

Karl Mannheim:
. . . 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 1936:244).


Karl Mannheim:

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.”

Karl Mannheim:
Problem of Generations Zeitlin (1997:381-383)
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 © 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Karl Mannheim:

Remember Comte’s 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.


Karl Mannheim:
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?

Karl Mannheim:

How do the “Problem of Generations” and
“relationalism” impact the analysis of the
situation between the 1st and 5th
generation members?


Karl Mannheim

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