ABSTRACT
This chapter characterizes the constellation which gave rise to the problems of the sociology of knowledge, and describes the fundamental currents which favour this approach. It is our belief that it is no wasted effort to ask preliminary questions of this kind before tackling any problem of the history of thought. The problem of a sociology of knowledge arose as a result of the interplay of four factors: the self-relativization of thought and knowledge, the appearance of a new form of relativization introduced by the 'unmasking' turn of mind, the emergence of a new system of reference, that of the social sphere, in respect of which thought could be conceived to be relative, and the aspiration to make this relativization total, relating not one thought or idea, but a whole system of ideas, to an underlying social reality.
