ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two closely connected problems. Firstly, the intention is to illustrate further the problem of competition, and secondly to make a contribution to a sociological theory of the mind. This recognition of the role of competition as a determinant in intellectual life is not meant, however, as a declaration of faith in unbridled 'sociologism'. To this, sociology and the cultural sciences make no exception; for in them we see only the old battle for universal acceptance of a particular interpretation of reality, carried on with modern scientific weapons. The nature of the generally accepted interpretation of the world at any given time is of decisive importance in determining the particular nature of the stage of historical evolution reached at that time. Sociological analysis shows that this public interpretation of reality is not simply 'there'; nor, on the other hand, is it the result of a 'systematic thinking out'; it is the stake for which men fight.
