Sociology of Knowledge

Sociology of Knowledge 

a direction of theoretical and empirical research that investigates the social nature of knowledge; the sociohistorical conditionality of knowledge, knowledge acquisition, and consciousness; and the social aspects of the production, dissemination, and use of various types of knowledge by society as a whole and by specific classes, social groups, and organizations.

The classics of Marxism-Leninism have treated the main issues in the sociology of knowledge: the theory of the social essence and conditionality of consciousness, the historical nature of knowledge acquisition, and the methodology for studying these topics. Marxism-Leninism has established the existence of multidimensional varieties of consciousness, characterized by the presence of various forms and levels and the degree to which they adequately reflect reality; it has also discovered the general laws of development and the class roots of ideology. The Marxist-Leninist interpretation of the social nature of knowledge and knowledge acquisition contrasts with both a naturalistic interpretation and vulgar sociologism.

Bourgeois sociology of knowledge emerged in the 1920’s as a relatively independent research field through the efforts of M. Scheler and K. Mannheim in Germany and P. Sorokin, F. Znaniecki, T. Parsons, R. Merton, A. Child, C. W. Mills, W. Stark, P. Berger, and T. Luckmann in the USA. Bourgeois sociology of knowledge, which exhibits a great variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, has borrowed from Marxism the concept of the social conditionality of consciousness. The Marxist notion is interpreted, however, either in a distinctly idealist manner or in the spirit of a narrowly defined determinism (technological, organizational, linguistic). Bourgeois sociologists ignore the role of sociohistorical practice in the formation of consciousness and usually exclude knowledge in the natural sciences from the sphere of social determination. Bourgeois sociology of knowledge is to a great extent directed against Marxism-Leninism.

In its investigation of the history of thought, types of world view and cultures, and ideas and their originators and exponents, bourgeois sociology of knowledge views social factors mainly as distorting the process of cognition; these factors include social status, class position, ideology, and values. This is related to the tendency, which predominated until the late 1960’s, to see science and ideology as opposed to each other and to “purify” knowledge from value judgments; this was reflected in the concepts of “deideologization” and the “end of ideology.” An opposite tendency that has gained considerable influence since the late 1960’s, particularly in the USA, stresses the relativism of scientific knowledge and the ideological nature of science. The empirical investigation of states of consciousness (public sentiments and opinions) among various classes and social, occupational, and other groups emphasizes the functional nature of the interrelations between the individual’s consciousness and his immediate surroundings. Bourgeois sociologists of knowledge are of various political and ideological orientations and range from open apologists to proponents of bourgeois-democratic ideas. Bourgeois sociology of knowledge as a whole is characterized by a chronic crisis in its philosophic and methodological principles, which is reflected in the constant replacement of these principles and in sharp internal controversies. On the other hand, the empirical findings of bourgeois sociology merit attention, as do its techniques and procedures for collecting material.

Marxist sociology of knowledge studies the methodological problems of the sociological approach to consciousness and the cognitive process, the sociohistorical nature of the acquisition of knowledge, and the way class and society condition the objective reflection of reality and its distorted, illusory forms—”false consciousness.” It also critically examines the various concepts of bourgeois sociology of knowledge. In addition, it studies the mechanisms of cognitive activity and the appearance and functioning of various types of knowledge, sentiments, opinions, and convictions among social groups and collectives.

REFERENCES

Marx, K., and F. Engels. Nemetskaia ideologiia. Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 3.
Marx, K. “K kritike politicheskoi ekonomii: Predislovie.” Ibid., vol. 13.
Lenin, V. I. Materializm i empiriokrititsizm. Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed.,vol. 18.
Lenin, V. I. Filosofskie tetradi. Ibid., vol. 29.
Kelle, V. Zh., and M. la. Koval’zon. Formy obshchestvennogo soznaniia.
Moscow, 1959. Mamardashvili, M. K. Formy i soderzhanie myshleniia. Moscow, 1968.
Moskvichev, L. N. Teoriia “deideologizatsii”: illiuzii i deistvitel’nost’. Moscow, 1971.
Megrelidze, K. R. Osnovnye problemy sotsiologii myshleniia [2nd ed.]. Tbilisi, 1973.
Leninskaia teoriia otrazheniia i sovremennaia nauka, fase. 3: Teoriia otrazheniia i obshchestvoznanie. Sofia, 1973.
Rebane, la. K. “O nekotorykh metodologicheskikh printsipakh otsenki burzhuaznoi ’sotsiologii znaniia.’ “Uch. zap. Tartuskogo gos. universiteta: Trudypofilosofii, 1974, issue 17.
The Sociology of Knowledge: A Reader. Edited by J. Curtis and I. Petras. New York, 1970.
Friedrichs, R. Sociology of Sociology. New York, 1970.

L. N. MOSKVICHEV