ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies and evaluates some central relativistic and historicist themes in early-twentieth-century German sociology of knowledge. The two main figures are Georg Simmel (1858–1918) and Karl Mannheim (1893–1947). In Simmel’s and Mannheim’s work, relativism and historicism featured in at least three different ways. First, both developed and defended distinctive general claims about various kinds of “relativism.” Second, in their historical case studies, Simmel and Mannheim made use of what they regarded as, “relativistic” methodologies. And third, both Simmel and Mannheim made the emergence of relativism and historicism a central topic for their sociological-historical inquiries. Simmel and Mannheim were not fully successful in dealing with relativism. Simmel declared himself a relativist but it remains unclear what precisely his relativism amounted to. Mannheim had a clearer view of relativism but thought of it as something the sociology of knowledge had to avoid at all costs. But he hardly succeeded in his attempts to do so. Fortunately, in neither case did the lack of success regarding the philosophical handling of relativism weaken the quality and interest of the sociological-historical case studies.
