Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was an influential Hungarian
sociologist during the first half of the 20th century. He is a key figure in
classical sociology, as well as one of the founders of the
sociology of knowledge
The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and the effects that prevailing ideas have on societies. It is not a specialized area of sociology. Instead, it dea ...
. Mannheim is best known for his book ''Ideology and Utopia'' (1929/1936), in which he distinguishes between partial and total
ideologies
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
, the latter representing comprehensive worldviews distinctive to particular social groups, and also between ideologies that provide outdated support for existing social arrangements, and
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
s, which look to the future and threaten to transform a society.
Biography
Childhood and education
Karl Mannheim was born 27 March 1893 in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, to a Hungarian father, a textile merchant, and German mother, both of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
descent. His early education was in that city, he studied philosophy and literature at the
University of Budapest
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, though he also went to Berlin (where he studied with
Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic.
Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach l ...
) and Paris to further his education, returning to Hungary around the start of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He obtained a PhD from the University of Budapest, and further qualifications from the
University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
.
Academic career
During the War he was involved in a number of influential intellectual circles: the
Galileo Circle
The Galileo Circle (''Galilei Kör'') was an atheist-materialist student organization that functioned in Budapest between 1908 and 1919. Their center was located at the Anker Köz in Terézváros, Budapest. The circle had several subgroups with f ...
founded by
Karl Polanyi
Karl Paul Polanyi (; hu, Polányi Károly ; 25 October 1886 – 23 April 1964),''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2003) vol 9. p. 554 was an Austro-Hungarian economic anthropologist and politician, best known ...
in which
Michael Polanyi
Michael Polanyi (; hu, Polányi Mihály; 11 March 1891 – 22 February 1976) was a Hungarian-British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. He argued that positivism supplies ...
also participated, the Social Science Association organised by
Oscar Jászi, and the
Sonntagskreis
The Sonntagskreis ( hu, Vasárnapi Kör, italic=no, "Sunday Circle") was an intellectual discussion group in Budapest, Hungary, between 1915 and 1918. The main focus of the group was on the relationship between ideas and the social and histori ...
or 'Sunday Circle' led by
György Lukács
György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and ae ...
. In the brief period of the
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Socialist Federative Republic of Councils in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szocialista Szövetséges Tanácsköztársaság) (due to an early mistranslation, it became widely known as the Hungarian Soviet Republic in English-language sources ( ...
, in 1919, Mannheim taught in the Pedagogical Institute of the University of Budapest thanks to the patronage of his friend and mentor Lukács, whose political conversion to communism he did not share.
[Longhurst, Brian (1989). ''Karl Mannheim and the Contemporary Sociology of Knowledge'', New York: St Martins Press, pp. 1-197.] Both Mannheim and Lukács were forced into exile after the rise of
Horthy as Regent of Hungary. Mannheim chose exile in Germany and was there from 1920-1933.
[Kettler, D., Meja, V., and Stehr, N. (1984) ''Karl Mannheim'', London, Tavistock.]
In 1921, he married psychologist Juliska Károlyné Lang, better known as Julia Lang.
Though she is often unacknowledged, Lang collaborated with Mannheim on many of his works, and along with a number of Mannheim's students, put together many of his works to be published posthumously.
After an unsuccessful attempt to gain a sponsor to teach philosophy in Heidelberg, Mannheim began work in 1924 under the German sociologist
Alfred Weber
Alfred Weber (; 30 July 1868 – 2 May 1958) was a German economist, geographer, sociologist and theoretician of culture whose work was influential in the development of modern economic geography.
Life
Alfred Weber, younger brother of the ...
, the brother of well-known sociologist
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
, and
Emil Lederer
Emil Lederer (22 July 1882 – 29 May 1939) was a Bohemian-born German economist and sociologist. Purged from his position at Humboldt University of Berlin in 1933 for being Jewish, Lederer fled into exile. He helped establish the "University ...
. In 1926, Mannheim had his
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
accepted by the faculty of social sciences, thus satisfying the requirements to teach classes in sociology at Heidelberg. Mannheim was chosen over other competitors for the post, one of whom was Walter Benjamin. From 1929-1933, he served as a professor of sociology and political economy at the
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...
.
Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias (; 22 June 1897 – 1 August 1990) was a German sociologist who later became a British citizen. He is especially famous for his theory of civilizing/decivilizing processes.
Biography
Elias was born on 22 June 1897 in Bresla ...
and Hans Gerth worked as his assistants from spring 1930 until spring 1933, with Elias as the senior partner.
Greta Kuckhoff, who later became a prominent figure in the DDR, was his administrative assistant in Frankfurt, leaving early in 1933 to study at the
London School of Economics
, mottoeng = To understand the causes of things
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £240.8 million (2021)
, budget = £391.1 millio ...
(LSE) and prepare for Mannheim's emigration there.
In 1933, Mannheim was ousted from his professorship under the terms of the anti-Semitic law to purge the civil service and was forced into exile. After fleeing the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
regime and settling in Britain, Mannheim became a lecturer in Sociology at the
London School of Economics
, mottoeng = To understand the causes of things
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £240.8 million (2021)
, budget = £391.1 millio ...
, under a program to assist academic exiles, until his death.
In 1941,
Sir Fred Clarke, Director of the
Institute of Education
IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to m ...
at the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
, invited him to teach sociology on a part-time basis in conjunction with his declining role at LSE under wartime conditions. In January 1946 he was appointed as the first sociology professor at the Institute of Education, a position he held until his death in London a year later. During his time in England, Mannheim played a prominent role in '
The Moot', a Christian discussion group of which T.S. Eliot was also a member, concerned with the role of religion and culture in society, which was convened by
J. H. Oldham Joseph Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), known as J. H. or Joe, was a Scottish missionary in India, who became a significant figure in Christian ecumenism, though never ordained in the United Free Church as he had wished.
Life
J.H. Oldham was the ...
. He gained a position of influence through his editorship of the extensive Routledge series on social sciences.
![Karl Mannheim's ashes in Golder's Green Colombarium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Karl_Mannheim%27s_ashes_in_Golder%27s_Green_Colombarium.JPG)
Mannheim's life, one of intellectual and geographical migration, falls into three main phases: Hungarian (to 1919), German (1919–1933), British (1933–1947). Among his valued interlocutors were
György Lukács
György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and ae ...
,
Oszkár Jászi
Oszkár Jászi (born Oszkár Jakobuvits; 2 March 1875 – 13 February 1957), also known in English as Oscar Jászi, was a Hungarian social scientist, historian, and politician.
Early life
Oszkár Jászi was born in Nagykároly on March 2, 187 ...
,
Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic.
Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach l ...
,
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
,
Edmund Husserl
, thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations)
, thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view
, thesis1_year = 1883
, thesis2_title ...
,
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
,
Alfred
Alfred may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series
* ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne
* ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák
*"Alfred (Interlu ...
and
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
,
Max Scheler
Max Ferdinand Scheler (; 22 August 1874 – 19 May 1928) was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Considered in his lifetime one of the most prominent German philosophers,Davis, Zach ...
, and
Wilhelm Dilthey
Wilhelm Dilthey (; ; 19 November 1833 – 1 October 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, and hermeneutic philosopher, who held G. W. F. Hegel's Chair in Philosophy at the University of Berlin. As a polymathic philosopher, w ...
. In his work, he sought variously to synthesize elements derived from German
historicism
Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...
,
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
,
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
,
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
, and Anglo-American
pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...
.
Death
Mannheim died in London on January 9, 1947 at the age of 53 due to a congenitally weak heart.
Shortly before his death, he was invited to be the head of the European
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
, an offer he was unfortunately not able to accept.
He was cremated at
Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...
and his ashes were placed in the columbarium there in an urn, which were later mixed with those of his wife. He was originally placed opposite
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
as a planned pairing, but Freud was later relocated.
Sociological work
Hungarian phase (1919)
Mannheim was a precocious scholar and an accepted member of two influential intellectual circles in Budapest. In the autumn of 1915, he was the youngest founding member of the
Sonntagskreis
The Sonntagskreis ( hu, Vasárnapi Kör, italic=no, "Sunday Circle") was an intellectual discussion group in Budapest, Hungary, between 1915 and 1918. The main focus of the group was on the relationship between ideas and the social and histori ...
(Sunday Circle) alongside
Béla Balázs
Béla Balázs (; 4 August 1884 in Szeged – 17 May 1949 in Budapest), born Herbert Béla Bauer, was a Hungarian film criticism, film critic, aesthetics, aesthetician, writer and poet of History of the Jews in Hungary, Jewish heritage. He was a ...
, Lajos Fülep, and György Lukács, where a wide range of literary and philosophical topics where discussed.
[Mary Gluck (1985]
''Georg Lukács and His Generation, 1900-1918''
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. pp. 14–16 Some discussion focused on the enthusiasms of German diagnosticians of cultural crisis, but also the novels of
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
and the writings
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , , ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on ...
and of the
German mystic
The Friends of God (German: Gottesfreunde; or gotesvriunde) was a medieval mystical group of both ecclesiastical and lay persons within the Catholic Church (though it nearly became a separate sect) and a center of German mysticism. It was founde ...
s. The Social Science Association, on the other hand, was founded by Oszkár Jászi in 1919 and was interested above all in French and English sociological writings. Mannheim's Hungarian writings, notably his doctoral dissertation "Structural Analysis of Epistemology,"
anticipate his lifelong search for "synthesis" between these currents.
According to the sociologist Longhurst, the Sonntagskreis "rejected any 'positivist' or 'mechanist' understanding of society and was dissatisfied with the existing political arrangements in Hungary. The way forward was seen to be through the spiritual renewal entailed in a revolution in culture".
The group members were discontent with the political and intellectual composition of Hungary, however, "they rejected a
materialist
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...
Marxist critique of this society. Hungary was to be changed by a spiritual renewal led by those who had reached a significant level of cultural awareness".
Yet they did not exclude Marxist themes and Mannheim's work was influenced by Lukács' Marxist interests, as he credits Marx as the forerunner to the sociology of knowledge.
[Ryan, Michael. "Karl Mannheim", ''Encyclopedia of Social Theory'', pp. 469.]
German phase (1919–1933)
This was Mannheim's most productive period, as this is when he turned from philosophy to sociology to inquire into the roots of culture. In the early part of his stay in Germany, Mannheim published his doctoral dissertation "Structural Epistemology of Knowledge", which discusses his theory of the structure of
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
, the "relations between the knower, the known and the to be known…for Mannheim based on psychology, logic and ontology".
Sociologist Brian Longhurst explains, his work on
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
represents the height of his early "idealist" phase, and transition to
hermeneutic
Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate c ...
"issues of interpretation within culture".
In this essay, Mannheim introduces "the
hermeneutic
Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate c ...
problem of the relationship between the whole and the parts". He argues the differences between art, the natural sciences, and philosophy "with respect to truth claims", stating science always tries to disprove one theory, where art never does this and can coexist in more than one worldview; philosophy falls in between the two extremes. Mannheim posits the "danger of relativism", in which historical process yields cultural product; "if thought to be relative to a historical period, it may be unavailable to a historical period"
Mannheim's ambitious attempt to promote a comprehensive sociological analysis of the structures of knowledge was treated with suspicion by Marxists and neo-Marxists of the grouping that was later recognized as an antecedent of the
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
. They saw the rising popularity of the sociology of knowledge as neutralization and a betrayal of Marxist inspiration. Arguments between Mannheim and Horkheimer played out in faculty forums, like the Kant Gesellschaft and Paul Tillich's Christian Socialist discussion group.
Horkheimer's Institute at the time was best known for the empirical work it encouraged, and several of Mannheim's doctoral students used its resources. While Mannheim and Horkheimer's contest looms large in retrospect, Mannheim's most active contemporary competitors were in fact other academic sociologists, notably the proto-fascist
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
professor,
Hans Freyer
Hans Freyer (31 July 1887 – 18 January 1969) was a German conservative revolutionary sociologist and philosopher.
Life
Freyer began studying theology, national economics, history and philosophy at the University of Greifswald in 1907, with the ...
, and the proponent of formal sociology and leading figure in the profession,
Leopold von Wiese
Leopold Max Walther von Wiese und Kaiserswaldau (2 December 1876, Glatz, German Empire – 11 January 1969, Cologne, West Germany) was a German sociologist and economist, as well as professor and chairman of the German Sociological Association ...
.
Theory of the sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture
Mannheim's theory on the sociology of knowledge is based on some of the epistemological discoveries of
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
. Sociology of knowledge is known as a section of the greater field known as the
sociology of culture
The sociology of culture, and the related cultural sociology, concerns the systematic analysis of culture, usually understood as the ensemble of symbolic codes used by a member of a society, as it is manifested in the society. For Georg Simmel, ...
. The idea of sociology of culture is defined as the relationship between culture and society.
[Remmling, Gunter W. "Karl Mannheim: Revision of an Intellectual Portrait." Social Forces, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Oct., 1961), pp. 23-30.]
There are two main branches of sociology of culture: a moderate branch and a radical branch. The moderate branch is represented by
Max Scheler
Max Ferdinand Scheler (; 22 August 1874 – 19 May 1928) was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Considered in his lifetime one of the most prominent German philosophers,Davis, Zach ...
, who believed that social conditions do not affect the content of knowledge. The radical branch, on the contrary, highlighted that society is determined by all aspects of culture. When it came to the sociology of knowledge, Mannheim believed that it established a dependence of knowledge on social reality.
Though Mannheim was far from being a Marxist, sociology of knowledge was largely based on Marx's theories regarding classes.
Mannheim's central question of the sociology of knowledge, which tried to understand the relationship between society and knowledge, demonstrated his endeavors to solve the issue of "historical nature and unity of mind and life."
Mannheim affirmed the sociology of knowledge as an "extrinsic interpretation and sets apart from the immanent interpretation of thought products."
The immanent interpretation is based on one's understanding of intellectual content, which is limited to theoretical content of knowledge and the extrinsic interpretation is based on the capability to understand manifestations.
Knowing the difference between these two types of interpretations helped Mannheim create a place for the sociology of knowledge in the scientific system, thus leaving the sociology of knowledge to stand opposite of the traditional human sciences and to interpret knowledge through an exploration of social reality.
Mannheim claimed that the sociology of knowledge has to be understood as the visionary expression of "historical experience which has social reality at its vital center."
In 1920, a series of his essays were published in Germany under the name ''Essays in Sociology of Knowledge.'' These essays focused on the search for the meaning behind social reality, the notion of "truth" and the role of the empirical intellectual in search for these truths.
Another collection of his essays, ''Essays in Sociology of Culture'', was posthumously published in 1956. It basically served to merge his concern with social reality and democracy. According to Mannheim, ideology was linked to a notion of reality, meanwhile culture focuses more so on the mind of the individual and how it perceives that reality, both, however, "still concerned with the role of the intelligentsia."
''Ideology and Utopia'' (1929)
Mannheim is most well known for his study and analysis of ideologies and utopias.
One of his main ideas regarding utopias is what he considers the "utopian mentality", which Mannheim describes in four ideal types:
# orgiastic chiliasm
# liberal humanist utopias
# the conservative idea
# modern communism
In ''Ideology and Utopia,'' he argued that the application of the term
ideology
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
ought to be broadened. He traced the history of the term from what he called a "particular" view. This view saw ideology as the perhaps deliberate obscuring of facts. This view gave way to a "total" conception (most notably in
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 p ...
), which argued that a whole social group's thought was formed by its social position (e.g. the proletariat's beliefs were conditioned by their relationship to the means of production). However, he called for a further step, which he called a general total conception of ideology, in which it was recognized that everyone's beliefs—including the social scientist's—were a product of the context they were created in. Thus, to Mannheim, "ideas were products of their times and of the social statuses of their proponents."
Mannheim points out social class, location and generation as the greatest determinants of knowledge.
He feared this could lead to
relativism
Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. Ther ...
but proposed the idea of
relationism as an antidote. To uphold the distinction, he maintained that the recognition of different perspectives according to differences in time and social location appears arbitrary only to an abstract and disembodied theory of knowledge.
The list of reviewers of the German ''Ideology and Utopia'' includes a remarkable roll call of individuals who became famous in exile, after the rise of Hitler:
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.
Arendt was born ...
,
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer (; ; 14 February 1895 – 7 July 1973) was a German philosopher and sociologist who was famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the Frankfurt School of social research. Horkheimer addressed authoritarianism, militari ...
,
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse (; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University ...
,
Paul Tillich
Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran Protestant theologian who is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologi ...
,
Hans Speier, Günther Stern (aka
Günther Anders
Günther Anders (born Günther Siegmund Stern, 12 July 1902 – 17 December 1992) was a German-Austrian Jewish émigré, philosopher, essayist and journalist.
Trained in the phenomenological tradition, he developed a philosophical anthropolo ...
),
Waldemar Gurian
Waldemar Gurian (February 13, 1902 – May 26, 1954) was a Russian-born German-American political scientist, author, and professor at the University of Notre Dame. He is regarded particularly as a theorist of totalitarianism. He wrote widely on p ...
,
Siegfried Kracauer
Siegfried Kracauer (; ; February 8, 1889 – November 26, 1966) was a German writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic, and film theorist. He has sometimes been associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. He is notable for a ...
,
Otto Neurath
Otto Karl Wilhelm Neurath (; 10 December 1882 – 22 December 1945) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. He was also the inventor of the ISOTYPE method of pictorial statistics and an innovator in mu ...
,
Karl August Wittfogel
Karl August Wittfogel (6 September 1896 – 25 May 1988) was a German-American playwright, historian, and sinologist. He was originally a Marxist and an active member of the Communist Party of Germany, but after the Second World War, he was an e ...
,
Béla Fogarasi, and
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss (, ; September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was a German-American political philosopher who specialized in classical political philosophy. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, Strauss later emigrated from Germany to the United States. ...
. In the early 1970s,
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...
and
Michael Maccoby
Michael Maccoby (March 5, 1933 – November 5, 2022) was an American psychoanalyst and anthropologist globally recognized as an expert on leadership for his research, writing and projects to improve organizations and work. He authored or co-aut ...
would later illustrate scientifically the effects of social class and economic structure on personality in their landmark study ''Social Character in a Mexican Village''.
Out of all of his works, Mannheim's book ''Ideologie und Utopie'' was the most widely debated book by a living sociologist in Germany during the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
. It was first published in German in 1929, with the English publication, ''Ideology and Utopia,'' following in 1936.
This work has been a standard in American-style international academic sociology, carried by the interest it aroused in the United States.
Mannheim and macro-sociology
Mannheim's work was written mostly through a macrosociological lens. While writing ''Ideology and Utopia'' Mannheim's fundamental questions were "why does man behave differently in the framework of different social group and class structures."
In answering this question, his intellectual contribution to sociology was focused more on social problems than sociological problems.
The consolidation of his work focused on topics such as "social stability, social groups and the psychic differentials corresponding to social status or class cleavages."
To Mannheim the public was essential and fundamental to a democratic society. Therefore, assuring that not one ideology dictate all of the public is vital for the preservation of democracy.
British phase (1933–1947)
In his British phase Mannheim attempted a comprehensive analysis of the structure of modern society by way of democratic social planning and education. Mannheim's first major work published during this period was ''Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction'' 1935, in which he argues for a shift from the liberal order of laissez-faire capitalism, "founded on the unregulated trade cycle, unextended democracy, free competition and ideas of competitive individualism" to planned democracy.
In ''Diagnosis of Our Time'', Mannheim expands on this argument and expresses concern for the transition from liberal order to planned democracy, according to Longhurst, arguing "...the embryonic planned democratic society can develop along democratic or dictatorial routes...as expressed in the totalitarian societies of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union".
His work was admired more by educators, social workers, and religious thinkers than it was by the small community of British sociologists. His books on planning nevertheless played an important part in the political debates of the immediate post-war years, both in the United States and in several European countries.
Legacy
Mannheim's sociological theorizing has been the subject of numerous book-length studies, evidence of an international interest in his principal themes. Mannheim was not the author of any work he himself considered a finished book, but rather of some fifty major essays and treatises, most later published in book form. In Spain his theories were followed by
Artur Juncosa Carbonell.
Selected works
* Mannheim, K. (
922-24
9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding .
Evolution of the Arabic digit
In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...
1980) ''Structures of Thinking.'' London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
* Mannheim, K. (
9251986) ''Conservatism. A Contribution to the Sociology of Knowledge.'' London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
* Mannheim, K. (1929), ''Ideologie und Utopie''
*Mannheim, K. (
9302001) ''Sociology as Political Education''. New Brunswick, NJ. Transaction.
* Mannheim, K. (1935 (English 1940)) ''Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction''. London: Routledge.
* Mannheim, K. (1936) ''Ideology and Utopia''. London: Routledge.
* Mannheim, K. (1950) "Freedom, Power, and Democratic Planning." Oxford University Press
* Mannheim, K. (1971. 1993) ''From Karl Mannheim''. New Brunswick, NJ. Transaction.
See also
;Books
* ''
History and Class Consciousness
''History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics'' (german: Geschichte und Klassenbewußtsein – Studien über marxistische Dialektik) is a 1923 book by the Hungarian philosopher György Lukács, in which the author re-emphasizes ...
''
;Topics
*
Theory of generations
References
Further reading
* Richard Aldrich, (2002) ''The Institute of Education 1902-2002: A centenary history'', London: Institute of Education.
* David Frisby, (1983) ''The Alienated Mind'', London: Heineman.
* David Kettler, Volker Meja, and Nico Stehr (1984), ''Karl Mannheim'', London: Tavistock.
* David Kettler and Volker Meja, (1995) ''Karl Mannheim and the Crisis of Liberalism'', New Brunswick and London: Transaction.
* Colin Loader, (1985) ''The Intellectual Development of Karl Mannheim'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Colin Loader and David Kettler (2001) ''Karl Mannheim's Sociology as Political Education'' New Brunswick and London: Transaction.
* Volker Meja and Nico Stehr (eds), (1982
990 ''Knowledge and Politics. The Sociology of Knowledge Dispute'', London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
* Eva Karadi and Erzsebet Vezer, (1985) ''Georg Lukacs, Karl Mannheim und der Sonntagskreis'', Frankfurt/M: Sendler.
* Reinhard Laube (2004) ''Karl Mannheim und die Krise des Historismus'', Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
* Guglielmo Rinzivillo, Scienza e valori in Karl Mannheim, Roma, Armando Armando, 2016
External links
*
Studies of Karl MannheimLikenesses of Mannheim in the National Portrait Gallery*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mannheim, Karl
1893 births
1947 deaths
Writers from Budapest
People from the Kingdom of Hungary
Hungarian Jews
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom
Hungarian sociologists
Jewish sociologists
20th-century Hungarian writers
20th-century Hungarian male writers
Goethe University Frankfurt faculty
Heidelberg University faculty
Academics of the London School of Economics
Utopian studies scholars