ABSTRACT
In the United States, the discipline called the "sociology of knowledge" is practiced mostly as a subfield of sociology whose subject matter is primarily those groups and institutions prominently characterized by a high degree of intellectual creativity. Sociologists of knowledge usually wind up studying science and scientists, art and artists, theories and theorists, ideas and ideologists. False consciousness is the result of an inability or reluctance or a failure to risk the credibility of one's own beliefs by passing them through the fire of sociological analysis, which constitutes a critique of their contextual sources and consequences. Ideological controversy arises not only from debates over the consistency of theory and practice regarding "agreed-upon" interests like equal opportunity or free speech. It also arises from disagreements about what those interests themselves are. Legitimacy itself is a variable that, at any historical moment, ranges from very high consensus to no consensus at all.
