ABSTRACT
Karl Mannheim realized that work in the sociology of knowledge may originate in various centers of methodological and conceptual systematization. Generational analysis at the decisive level of the social and cultural structure presupposes conceptual differentiations among three generational groupings. The sociology of knowledge generally assumes that mental life is determined by the major social processes; for the more specific purpose at hand, Mannheim delimits the field of investigation with the concept of ‘sociology of the mind’. Mannheim’s attempts to correlate cognitive perspectives and world interpretations with social structure and process are rooted in French Enlightenment philosophy, Marxist social theory, and in the classical sociological tradition. The Social Democrats, who had received 30 per cent of the ballot, supported Stresemann’s foreign policy, but opposed the strong influence which industrialists and businessmen exerted on the government. The sociology of knowledge is a type of extrinsic interpretation which functionalizes ideas on a socially conceived level.
