MANNHEIM, KARL

Mannheim, Karl: translation

(1893-1947)

sociologist; helped establish sociology as an academic discipline. Born in Budapest to a Hungarian father and a German mother, he studied philosophy, pedagogy, and German literary history before taking a doctorate at Budapest in 1918 with a thesis analyzing the theory of knowledge (Die Strukturanalyse der Erkenntnistheorie). In 1915-1919 he be-longed to the Sunday Circle, a group of intellectuals that included Georg Lu-kacs.* He taught cultural philosophy at Budapest during the brief period of Bela Kun's Soviet Republic (May-June 1919). But Kun's demise forced him to flee to Germany, where he worked as a private teacher and tutor. In 1922, having resumed his studies, he completed a second doctorate at Heidelberg and then wrote hisHabilitationin 1926.

Mannheim obtained German citizenship in 1925 and taught sociology at Hei-delberg during 1926-1930 as aPrivatdozent.In 1930 he succeeded Franz Op-penheimer at Frankfurt as professor of sociology and economics. But success was short-lived; of Jewish ancestry, he was dismissed in April 1933. Forced a second time to flee his home, he gained appointment as a lecturer in October 1933 at the London School of Economics. He retained this position until 1944 and taught also at the University of London's Institute of Education; the institute appointed him Professor for the Sociology of Education in 1945.

Mannheim's intellectual evolution is often divided into a "Hungarian phase," a "German phase," and an "English phase." His Hungarian work, focused on a structural analysis of knowledge, was driven by a relativistic cultural-philosophical line of reasoning. During his German period—influenced by the thought of Karl Marx, Wilhelm Dilthey, Max Weber,* and Max Scheler*—he generated a science of sociology reflected in his 1929 workIdeologie und Uto-pie. By merging positivism and relativism,Ideologie und Utopieachieved a dialectic that he called "relationism"; in essence, he argued that there is no certainty in the study of society. His English years were influenced by prag-matism, behaviorism, and the application of psychoanalysis to sociology. Throughout his career he retained an attachment to the utopian aspects of Marx-ism.