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Karl Mannheim

Hungarian-German philosopher and sociologist (1893-1947) · United Kingdom · Academics · Died at 53

Karl Mannheim is read about 186 times a day, in 45 languages.

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He argued that every worldview - left, right, revolutionary, reactionary - is shaped by the social position of whoever holds it, and that includes the person making that argument.

AcademicsAcademicLiteraturePhilosophyUnited KingdomEurope20th Century

A life in dates

1947Died9 January 19471929“In general there are two distinct and separable meanings of the term "ideology" - the particular and the total.”In their wordsAs translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936)

“The particular conception of "ideology" makes its analysis of ideas on a purely psychological level.”In their wordsAs translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936)

“It may indeed be true that in order to act we need a certain amount of self-confidence and intellectual self-assurance.”In their wordsAs translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936)

“Conflicting intellectual positions may actually come to supplement one another.”In their wordsAs translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936)

“In order to be transmuted into knowledge, every perception is and must be ordered and organized into categories.”In their wordsAs translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936)

“It has become extremely questionable whether, in the flux of life, it is a genuinely worthwhile intellectual problem to seek to discover fixed and immutable ideas or absolutes.”In their wordsAs translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936)

1893Born27 March 1893

Also in Deutsch

Photos 2

Mannheim KárolyMannheim KárolyKarl Mannheim's ashes in Golder's Green ColombariumKarl Mannheim's ashes in Golder's Green Colombarium

In their own words 8

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Karl Mannheim
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8 statements, newest first

  1. In general there are two distinct and separable meanings of the term "ideology" - the particular and the total.

    1929, As translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936), Own words

  2. The particular conception of "ideology" makes its analysis of ideas on a purely psychological level.

    1929, As translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936), Own words

  3. The thought of every group is seen as arising out of its life conditions.

    1929, As translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

In their orbit

Spouse: Juliska Mannheim

About this person

Born Károly Manheim in Hungary on 27 March 1893, Karl Mannheim became one of the founders of the sociology of knowledge and a central figure in classical sociology. His 1929 book Ideology and Utopia laid out a framework that would define the field: he separated partial ideologies from total ones - the latter being entire worldviews tied to specific social groups - and drew a line between ideologies that defend the present order and utopias that imagine its transformation. The work placed him at the center of debates about how thought itself is conditioned by social life. He died on 9 January 1947, leaving a discipline that still wrestles with the questions he framed.

Country
United Kingdom
Category
Academics
Type
Academic
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1893 to 1947 · aged 53

Academics from the United Kingdom 6

Michael Dummett55.8R. M. Hare55.8George Fox55.9Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer55.7Angus Deaton55.9W. Arthur Lewis55.7

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