ABSTRACT
The sociology of knowledge takes on pertinence under a definite complex of social and cultural conditions. With increasing social conflict, differences in the values, attitudes and modes of thought of groups develop to the point where the orientation which these groups previously had in common is overshadowed by incompatible differences. A central point of agreement in all approaches to the sociology of knowledge is the thesis that thought has an existential basis in so far as it is not immanently determined and in so far as one or another of its aspects can be derived from extra-cognitive factors. The prevailing theories in sociology of knowledge have dealt with one or both of two major types of relation: causal or functional, and the symbolic or organismic or meaningful. In addition to providing causal explanations of knowledge, theories ascribe social functions to knowledge, functions which presumably serve to account for its persistence or change.
