K. Mannheim's Theory of Utopia

Abstract

In his book “Ideologie and Utopie” Karl Mannheim says in 1929 as follows : In modern ages man criticized the reality (= “Sein”) and tried to reform the society in which he lived through ideas subjectively. This exactly belongs to the structural form of modern formation. He defines these ideas 'utopia' or utopian conciousness. These utopias standed fully history transcendentally at the beginning of modern ages, but gradually went down to the reality, he writes. He analyses this process and warns for the situation of disappearance of utopian thing.But, I think, this situation is not only the main tendency of the time when Mannheim lived, but also a natural (and logical) result from his epistemology. This paper treats the reason why utopias disappear from his theory. Especially the point that his concept (or criterion) of truth (= “Sein”) is ambigurous is criticized, making reference to criticisms about Mannheim's theory of truth made by Herbert Marcuse and Agnes Heller, who both later developed their own utopias. His ambiguous concI maintain in this paper that a tension between “Sein” and “Sollen” might be necessary for appearance of utopia. In the end is mentioned the trend of utopianism after Mannheim : Judith N. Shklar's “After Utopia” is taken up as a foreboding of revival of utopianism. Then, Heller's 'rational Utopia' is presented, including her try to solve the problem which Mannheim can not do successfully.