Ideology and Utopia

Introduction

Karl Mannheim, a Hungarian-born sociologist then teaching at Heidelberg, published Ideologie und Utopie in 1929; a year later he became professor in Frankfurt. The book develops the sociology of knowledge: thinking is tied to the social position of those who think, so the critique of ideology must be extended from the views of one’s opponents to all views, including one’s own. Mannheim calls this the “total” as opposed to the “particular” concept of ideology and proposes “relationism” to avoid mere relativism. The German reception was intense, with sharp criticism from Max Horkheimer, among others. The English edition of 1936, expanded by new chapters, became a standard text of sociology.

Connections

Builds on

• History and Class Consciousness1923 · Georg Lukács

Taken up in

• The Myth of the Lazy Native1977 · Syed Hussein Alatas