Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kettler, David
• Meja, Volker

Titel

KARL MANNHEIM AND THE CRISIS OF LIBERALISM: THE SECRET OF THESE NEW TIMES

Erscheinungsjahr

1995

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Sociological Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This study of Karl Mannheim's sociological project presents each stage of Mannheim's life as a sociologist & explores his influence on leading social thinkers. It is asserted that Mannheim's driving determination was to learn as a sociologist by observing closely the secret of the new times. His aim was to carry liberal values forward & to link social thinking to political emancipation despite overwhelming evidence against the connection. It is stressed that, although Mannheim's work turns on two distinct conceptions -- the sociology of knowledge & planning for freedom -- that form a common project for reconstituting political knowledge, they are generally considered apart. The book attempts a reconstruction of Mannheim's project as a whole to highlight this fact, along with the self-aware & self-critical rhetorical constituents in his thinking, his sensitivity to culture context, his informed skepticism about Marxist historical ontologies, & his recognition of multiple modes of knowing. Biographical information is combined with sociological theory, including Mannheim's dealings with major social thinkers in Hungary, Weimar Germany, the US, & England. The analysis is informed by: the themes of liberalism; & the dilemmas of history & theory, science & rhetoric, & freedom & technical control. The 8 Chpts are accompanied by a Glossary, an Introduction: The Biography of a Project, & a Conclusion: Sociology as a Vocation. (1) Politics as a Science. (2) Idealism, Romanticism, and Sociology. (3) Mannheim's Weimar Project: Ways of Knowledge. (4) The Politics of Synthesis. (5) Religions, Politics, and Education: Reassessing Civilization. (6) Diagnosis of Crisis. (7) American Hopes: The Dispute over Ideology and Utopia. (8) A Political Sociology: Mannheim and the Elite. Bibliog of 275 items. V. Rios