The sociology of knowledge: Toward redemption of a failed promise

Abstract

Despite occasional propadeutic outbursts, the sociology of knowl? edge has failed to emerge as a clearly defined area of research. Like Halley's comet, it appears recurrently in the intellectual skies, momentarily rekindling scholarly interests. It then disappears into the darkness, leaving a scattered trail of conceptual debris, defying efforts to prolong its stay in the social scientific empyrean. Nevertheless, periodically over the last thirty years, a number of social scientists have endeavored to define the sociology of know? ledge as a disciplinary matrix, whose main identifying feature would be to empirically explain the relationship between ideas and social structure. A sustained research program along these lines was to be anchored in a conceptual framework through which empirical knowledge about the relationship between society and thought could be accumulated. In their search for the conceptual foundations of an emergent sociology of knowledge, theorists invariably looked to the "founders" or "precursors" of the field for guidance and insight. While thinkers such as Marx, Scheler, and Durkheim were usually given some consideration, Karl Mannheim has been singled out as the theorist whose contributions to the sociology of knowledge have been most notable. By subjecting Mannheim's thoughts to close scrutiny, and by ridding his framework of its ambiguities, inconsistencies, and eva? luative concerns, an effort was made to extract a conceptual core for a nascent discipline. In effect, the would-be architects of a revitalized sociology of knowledge have been engaged in projects akin to the "Whig interpretation of history."1 According to this "presentist" doctrine, the development of thought in the human and natural sciences is characterized by steady and inexorable progress. Hence, ideas and concepts of the past are of interest only insofar as they constitute a rich repository to be mined for its relevance to contem? porary analytical problems in the social sciences. Ideas of the past