ABSTRACT
The sociology of art and literature, as a branch of the sociology of knowledge, shares the theoretical orientation of the latter as well as its problems of method and philosophy. The sociology of knowledge explores the social co-ordinates of all forms of knowledge. This very brief, however, presupposes the relativity, in some sense and to some extent, of knowledge: that is, the fact that knowledge is not absolute, and is itself constituted in the mind. The hermeneutic approach to cultural history and Weltan-schauungs-theory avoids the pitfalls which in the end undermine the otherwise admirable and highly suggestive theories of both Mannheim and Goldmann, and in so doing fulfils the implicit promise of the possibility of a sociology of world-views. The concept of a world-view is particularly relevant to the sociology of art and literature, for the claim is often made that art expresses world-view.
