From Karl Mannheim

by Kurt H. Wolff (Editor)

Overview

Karl Mannheim's thought cuts across much of twentieth-century sociology, politics, history, philosophy, and psychology. This enlarged anthology convincingly demonstrates his centrality to present-day interpetive social and political theory. The posthumous publication of Structures of Thinking and the full text of Conservatism have made From Karl Mannheim more relevant than ever. This volume demonstrates Mannheim's self-awareness and self-critical rhetoric, his sensitivity to cultural contexts, his experimental approach to systems of ideology, his recognition of multiple modes of knowing, and other features of his unfinished theorizing.

There is a strong affinity between Mannheim and contemporary interest in problems of cultural interpretation. New sensitivity to the issue of relativism in both social and cultural studies also depends heavily on Mannheim. The recent demise of communism in Eastern Europe and Russia has focused attention once more on relations between intellectuals in politics, and Mannheim is arguably the most influential thinker who placed this relationship at the center of informed discussion. The range and variety of the articles in this volume reveal him, once again, as a formidable experimental and innovative thinker.

This expanded edition includes Mannheim's brilliant essay "The Problem of Generations." In a new substantial introduction, Volker Meja and David Kettler analyze previously unpublished writings by Mannheim. From Karl Mannheim is essential reading for social and political theorists, as well as for psychologists. As Emory S. Bogardus noted: "Mannheim's life-work is seen as an important, far-reaching and thoughtful complement to the work of sociologists who concentrate then- research in terms of behavioral science."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138523975
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/06/2017
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	606
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kurt H. Wolff is professor emeritus at Brandeis University, where he taught sociology until his retirement in 1982. Before that, he taught at Earlham College and Ohio State University. He is author of a number of books and many essays in the field, noteworthy of which are Surrender and Catch: Trying Sociology; and Beyond The Sociology of Knowledge. He has been a key figure in the International Sociological Association, serving as president of its research committees on the sociology of knowledge, and on the history of sociology, and served as Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Rome and Australia. He is the recipient of awards by several foundations.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Reading of Karl Mannheim; I: A Review of Georg Lukács’ Theory of the Novel *; II: On the Interpretation of Weltanschauung; III: The Problem of a Sociology of Knowledge; IV: The Ideological and the Sociological Interpretation of Intellectual Phenomena *; V: Conservative Thought; VI: The Problem of Generations; VII: Competition as a Cultural Phenomenon; VIII: Problems of Sociology in Germany; IX: The Democratization of Culture; X: The Crisis of Liberalism and Democracy as Seen from the Continental and Anglo-Saxon Points of View; XI: On the Diagnosis of Our Time; XII: Education, Sociology and the Problem of Social Awareness