ABSTRACT
In a sense the work of Karl Mannheim can be described as a consistent attempt to build a sociological foundation under Max Weber’s methodology of understanding. Objective understanding, as we remember, was to Max Weber a unique chance created by the modern era of rationality. Two questions, however, remained curiously unattended in Weber’s work: is the ‘rationalist trend’ of the modern era something more than just a historical coincidence, a lasting sediment of charismatic giants of the recent and not-so-recent past? And why ought we to trust that the chance these trends created will be taken up? Who is likely to do the job and why? Through most of his creative life Mannheim struggled to take a full stock of the problems these two questions entail, and to solve them in a systematic way.
