The Problem of the “Socially Unattached Intelligentsia”

Mannheim's theory of the "socially unattached Intelligentsia" is without doubt the most criticized and misunderstood theory in all of his works. The problem of the Intelligentsia, as it appears in Mannheim's work, is tied up with that of false consciousness and with the sociology of knowledge of dialectical thought. This Problem has an axiological aspect that may be overlooked in an overweighted cognitive interpretation. Ideology sits astride the ontological and axiological spheres, and this lack of a clear distinction is an important factor of ideological distortion and occultation. Understandably, rootless intellectuals who live somewhat outside the mainstream, are in a good position to disentangle the axio-cognitive blurring of ideological discourse. "Elite intellectuelle" is a mistranslation of freischwebende Intelligenz, and Mannheim was too knowledgeable a sociologist —and too close to Marxism —to seriously consider that belonging to a given social stratum could allow anybody to "think outside of social frameworks".