ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The sociologist is concerned with the naturalistic understanding of what people take to be knowledge, and not with the evaluative assessment of what deserves so to be taken; his orientation is normally distinct from that of the philosopher or epistemologist. Knowledge is not produced by passively perceiving individuals, but by interacting social groups engaged in particular activities. The associated pictorial metaphor for knowledge is so pervasive, intuitively attractive and, indeed, valuable as an explanatory resource, that it can be difficult in practice to structure one's thought independently of it. If verbal statements cannot be matched against reality like pictures are, then the need for an alternative metaphor to characterise the nature of verbal knowledge is indicated. Knowledge and object are connected by the representation.
