imascholar

• Wissen(knowledge)soziologie – attempt to under knowledge of ideas, culture
• Humans think both with and against one another by class, religion, tribe, nationality, individually
• We acquire our ideas, we get indoctrinated
• Marx’s statement in the prefix – its social being (existence) that determines social consciousness – he is not happy about that
• Conditions of social existence determine what we think, how we think
• We are divided not only by material interest but also by diverse ideology
• Ideology as false consciousness, misleading, counter-productive
• Position we occupy in soc tends to determine how we view ourselves, others and h world
• We develop Weltanschauung (world/view+outlook)
• In medieval Europe each group had diffn ideology and it was isolated, no mixing of ideologies at that time, little contact bwn them
• In Enlightenment aristocracy engaged in self-criticism under influence of Voltaire
• In middle ages nothing happened that could change a peasant’s view of the world
• Then in transih to ind/cap society new ideas emerged and penetrated consciousness of all strata and classes
• While we gain clarity from epistemological questions (are our ideas valid or not) or even psycho questions, there is another point of view to take in account is sociological view if u r interested in origin of ideas
• Connection bwn social system in which we live and what we think
• In weber’s study of protestant ethic we find real sociology of ideas, how capitalist spirit is rooted in protestant ethic
• “the last shall b h first” in New Testament, biography, soc structure and history to study to understand it
• phenomenon of resentiment (spiritual revenge) appealed to early Christians bcs of their oppressed state, they created utopian ideas (ideology is ideas how powerful legitimize their privileged status), utopian ideas challenge and attempt to repudiate the claims of privileged and powerful
• only by studying social context we can understand why they say the “last shall be the first”
• early xtian thought was utopian as it xpressed resentiment of the oppressed
• their weakness lead them to deprecate power, and glorify pacific outlook “turn the other cheek”
• since they are too weak to have political aspirations “render into Caesar things that are caesar’s”
• roman values were inverted
• two conceptions of ideology: particular and the total
• particular focus on individual more psychological than sociological
• prostitution of the pen – generate deliberate ideology – outright lying all the way to self-deception or honest ignoramus (Gebbels if u lie enough ppl will believe at least part of it)
• Tocqueville – Gobimeau (races of the world)
• Debunking or unmasking of person (you say that bcs u were brought up this way) there is no end to this, no general criteria
• Total conceph – ideology associated with a class, or an epoch – could be a nationalist ideology : example is Conservative or liberal thought
• RCR as an opposition to Enlightenment ideology
• Reaction not only ag events and new developments but also ideas: its ideas vs ideas
• We first discover Situational determination – being tied up with ideas – of our opponent’s ideas, we fail to look critical at our own ideas and recognize that our own ideas are also situationally determined
• Special form of total conception of ideology – we discover self-serving ideological dterminations that our opponents are doing
• When opponents argue against us we find that our ideas are also sit/determined
• Marxists started to uncover liberal/conservative ideas – bourgeoisie ideas were hypocritical, soon they returned the compliment
• Marxism was also sit/determined, then we start to subject all ideas to analysis – general form of total conceph of ideology – if we do in objective attitude – that’s what is called Sociology of ideas
• Not a relativism – bcs some perspectives gives us more valid insights than others
• Discovering the origin of idea does not prove it true or false (British anthropologists in India)
• So sociology of knowledge is no substitute to of the validity of idea
• …
• in middle ages intellectuals were attached to church for instance so it set limits on their outlook and their expressed ideas
• then they became “relatively-unattached” intellectuals
• it happened during the enlightenment and afterwards in 18-19C with growth of universities
• for first time not only aristocrats went to universities but more and more of middle classes and soon there was maybe even an overproduction of intellectuals
• nothing as dangerous and discontented intellectual bcs he can become a prostitute of the pen
• in 18 c u had a salon, coffee shop, small audiences
• intellectuals are not a class, not above class, they can serve any class, they are ideologues, they can serve any master (prostitutes)
• privileging intellectuals epistemologically is maybe too far (for Zeitlin)
• Mannhaim talks to two groups at least: to bourge he says that their laissa faire leads to disaster – we need democratic planning (S-simonian); to working class leaders he says that u wanted crises to improve ur situation, but look where it led to in Germany and Russia
• M tries to mediate bwn capitalist class d working class
• He tries to introduce the third day (Scandinavia), form of social democracy
• John Keynes a genius, many new ideas – make constructive work to occupy ppl, give them purchasing power to buy accumulated goods, make them build schools, bridges
• Mixture of Keynesiam and Social democracy to avoid eco crysises and totalitarism
• Era of masses easily manipulated by dictators bcs masses are atomized
• 397 last paragraph, hierarchic, organic and guided by scientific elites and need for new social philosophy based upon Christian values, altruism/self-sacrifice, a body of priests to maintain this ethics
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