Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Thoroughly modern Mannheim and the postmodern W...
View graph of relations

Thoroughly modern Mannheim and the postmodern Weltanschauung.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published

Standard

Thoroughly modern Mannheim and the postmodern Weltanschauung. / Dant, Tim.
In: Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, Vol. 4, 12.1997, p. 531-558.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

APA

Vancouver

Dant T. Thoroughly modern Mannheim and the postmodern Weltanschauung. Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia. 1997 Dec;4:531-558.

Author

Dant, Tim. / Thoroughly modern Mannheim and the postmodern Weltanschauung. In: Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia. 1997 ; Vol. 4. pp. 531-558.

Bibtex

@article{4c57a3280a45416499e66985f54bb66f,
title = "Thoroughly modern Mannheim and the postmodern Weltanschauung.",
abstract = "There are a number of features of Mannheim{\textquoteright}s method for the interpretation of weltanschauung that laid the foundations for his later sociology of knowledge and that could be considered as prefiguring the methodological principles of a postmodern world-view. Like postmodernists he stresses the significance of culture, and addresses the role of ideas and meaning in the form of society. His tripartite theory of meaning moves away from a determination of meaning by authorial intentions and towards the indeterminacy of documentary meaning. His theory of {\textquoteleft}relationism{\textquoteright} follows a similar pattern to the postmodernist concept of {\textquoteleft}difference{\textquoteright} and ultimately relies on immanent criteria of validity. Despite these continuities with postmodern perspectives I argue that Mannheim cannot be turned into a postmodernist because he seeks a foundation for meaning and its interpretation in historicism. Moreover, while his method analyses material objects and social subjects in the same way, he nonetheless maintains an ontological distinction between objects and subjects that distinguishes his approach from the hyperrealist perspective of postmodernism. If Mannheim cannot be claimed as a postmodernist before its time, his approach to analysing world-views reveals the modernist pretensions of theories that describe a postmodern weltanschauung as if the current epoch could be characterised in a unitary and coherent way.",
keywords = "Mannheim historicism interpretivism objects sociology of knowledge",
author = "Tim Dant",
year = "1997",
month = dec,
language = "English",
volume = "4",
pages = "531--558",
journal = "Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia",
issn = "0486-0349",
publisher = "Sociologia Editrice il Mulino",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Thoroughly modern Mannheim and the postmodern Weltanschauung.

AU - Dant, Tim

PY - 1997/12

Y1 - 1997/12

N2 - There are a number of features of Mannheim’s method for the interpretation of weltanschauung that laid the foundations for his later sociology of knowledge and that could be considered as prefiguring the methodological principles of a postmodern world-view. Like postmodernists he stresses the significance of culture, and addresses the role of ideas and meaning in the form of society. His tripartite theory of meaning moves away from a determination of meaning by authorial intentions and towards the indeterminacy of documentary meaning. His theory of ‘relationism’ follows a similar pattern to the postmodernist concept of ‘difference’ and ultimately relies on immanent criteria of validity. Despite these continuities with postmodern perspectives I argue that Mannheim cannot be turned into a postmodernist because he seeks a foundation for meaning and its interpretation in historicism. Moreover, while his method analyses material objects and social subjects in the same way, he nonetheless maintains an ontological distinction between objects and subjects that distinguishes his approach from the hyperrealist perspective of postmodernism. If Mannheim cannot be claimed as a postmodernist before its time, his approach to analysing world-views reveals the modernist pretensions of theories that describe a postmodern weltanschauung as if the current epoch could be characterised in a unitary and coherent way.

AB - There are a number of features of Mannheim’s method for the interpretation of weltanschauung that laid the foundations for his later sociology of knowledge and that could be considered as prefiguring the methodological principles of a postmodern world-view. Like postmodernists he stresses the significance of culture, and addresses the role of ideas and meaning in the form of society. His tripartite theory of meaning moves away from a determination of meaning by authorial intentions and towards the indeterminacy of documentary meaning. His theory of ‘relationism’ follows a similar pattern to the postmodernist concept of ‘difference’ and ultimately relies on immanent criteria of validity. Despite these continuities with postmodern perspectives I argue that Mannheim cannot be turned into a postmodernist because he seeks a foundation for meaning and its interpretation in historicism. Moreover, while his method analyses material objects and social subjects in the same way, he nonetheless maintains an ontological distinction between objects and subjects that distinguishes his approach from the hyperrealist perspective of postmodernism. If Mannheim cannot be claimed as a postmodernist before its time, his approach to analysing world-views reveals the modernist pretensions of theories that describe a postmodern weltanschauung as if the current epoch could be characterised in a unitary and coherent way.

KW - Mannheim historicism interpretivism objects sociology of knowledge

M3 - Journal article

VL - 4

SP - 531

EP - 558

JO - Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia

JF - Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia

SN - 0486-0349

ER -