Essays on the Sociology of Culture

by Mannheim,Karl

• ISBN13: 9780415075534
• ISBN10: 041507553X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-03-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Karl Mannheim was one of the leading sociologists of the twentieth century.Essays on the Sociology of Culture, originally published in 1956, was one of his most important books. The collection of essays is centered around two important questions: what is the relationship between the organization of intellectuals and the ideas which they produce, and given the development of a democratic ethos in society, what form would the democratization of culture assume? These two questions continue to be central to the humanities and social sciences, and therefore Mannheim's contribution remains a fascinating input to contemporary debate. This second edition includes a superb preface by Bryan Turner which sets Mannheim's study in the appropriate historical and intellectual context, and explains why his thought on culture remains essential for students engaged in debates about mass culture, the politics of culture and postmodernity.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(14)
PART ONE TOWARDS THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE MIND; AN INTRODUCTION
First Approach to the Subject	15	(10)
Hegel Reconsidered. From the Phenomenology to the Sociology of the Mind	15	(2)
The Science of Society and the Sociology of the Mind. Difficulties of a Synthesis	17	(6)
Tentative Nature of the Inquiry. Its Initial Objective: A Critique of the False Concepts of Society and Mind	23	(2)
The False and the Proper Concepts of History and Society	25	(34)
The Theory of an Immanent History of Thought, and Why it Emerged	25	(8)
Digression on Art History	32	(1)
False Polarization of the Attributes `Material' and `Ideal'	33	(3)
The False Concepts of History, Dialectics, and Mediacy	36	(8)
The Mediate Character of Roles. The Social Circulation of Perceptions and Complementary Situations	44	(7)
Towards an Adequate Concept of Society	51	(2)
A Preliminary Outline of the Steps towards the Sociology of the Mind	53	(2)
The Three Types of Sociology and the Corresponding Levels of the Sociology of the Mind. Structure and Causality	55	(4)
The Proper and Improper Concept of the Mind	59	(23)
A Second Review of its Hegelian Version	59	(1)
The Genesis of the Mind Concept	60	(4)
The Subjective and Objective Manifestations of the Mind. The Social Genesis of Meaning	64	(4)
The Suprapersonal Character of Meaning	68	(1)
Critique of the Entelechy as a Conceptual Model	69	(2)
The Explanatory and the Expository Procedure. The Structure of Events	71	(3)
The Question whether the World Has Structure	74	(1)
The Causal Account and the Expository Explanation Re-examined	75	(2)
The Structural and the Random Concept of Causation. The Problem of Multiple Causation	77	(2)
Historiography and the Structural View	79	(1)
The Matrix of Works and of Action	80	(1)
The Discovery of the Structural Relationship Between Action and Works	81	(1)
An Outline of the Sociology of the Mind	82	(6)
The Sociology of the Mind on the Axiomatic Level. The Ontology of the Social and its Bearing on the Historical Character of Thought	83	(3)
The Sociology of the Mind on the Level of Comparative Typology	86	(1)
The Sociology of the Mind on the Level of Historical Individuation	87	(1)
Recapitutation: the Sociology of the Mind as an Area of Inquiry	88	(83)
PART TWO THE PROBLEM OF THE INTELLIGENTSIA. AN INQUIRY INTO ITS PAST AND PRESENT ROLE
The Self-Discovery of Social Groups	91	(10)
Outlines of a Sociological Theory of the Intelligentsia	101	(5)
How Social Groups are Identified	106	(5)
Types of Intelligentsia	111	(4)
The Contemporary Intellectual	115	(6)
The Historical Roles of the Intelligentsia	121	(38)
The Social Background of Intellectuals
The Affiliations of Intellectuals and Artists
The Intelligentsia and the Classes
The Social Habitat of Intellectuals
The Natural History of the Intellectual	159	(7)
The Contemporary Situation of the Intelligentsia	166	(5)
PART THREE THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF CULTURE
Some Problems of Political Democracy at the Stage of its Full Development	171	(3)
The Problem of Democratization as a General Cultural Phenomenon	174	(73)
The Three Fundamental Principles of Democracy	174	(6)
The Principle of the Ontological Equality of All Men	180	(8)
The Autonomy of the Social Units	188	(12)
Democratic Elites and their Mode of Selection	200	(39)
Elite Selection and Democracy
Group Structure and Relation to Other Groups
The Self-Evaluation of Aristocratic and Democratic Elites
Social Distance and the Democratization of Culture
The Cultural Ideals of Aristocratic and Democratic Groups
The Problem of Ecstasy	239	(8)
Index	247