Ideology and Utopia by Karl Mannheim

Author:Karl Mannheim
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781839746680
Publisher: Barakaldo Books
Published: 2020-11-17T16:00:00+00:00

6. THE COMMUNICABILITY OF POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE

The original impetus to research in the problem of ideology has sprung from political life itself in its most recent developments. It does not represent a science which has been conjured up out of hairsplitting, intellectualistic subtleties. We have already too many such formulations of problems and it would indeed be harmful to increase their number. On the contrary, the student of ideology is merely trying to think out a problem which people have stumbled upon in the course of their effort to orient themselves in the everyday life of society. This problem consists essentially of the inescapable necessity of understanding both oneself and one’s adversary in the matrix of the social process.

It is imperative at this point to introduce some reflections concerning the external forms of such a science, its communicability, and the requirements for its transmission to coming generations. It is evident from what has already been said that, as concerns the external form of the science, that part of political science which is made up of concrete factual knowledge is not subject to the problematic considerations just mentioned. What is peculiarly problematical in politics as science and in politics proper does not begin until we reach that sphere of life in which our interests and our perceptions are closely bound up with one another, and which makes what has gone before appear in a new light.

It has been shown that here too there are relationships which can be investigated, but which, just because they are in constant flux, can be taught only if, in the case of every phase to be communicated, there is taken into account the observational position which makes these interrelations assume their definite certain character. Every view should be equated with the social position of the observer. If possible, it should be investigated in every case why the relations appear as they do from every given standpoint. We cannot emphasize too much that the social equation does not always constitute a source of error but more frequently than not brings into view certain interrelations which would otherwise not be apparent. The peculiar one-sidedness of a social position is always most apparent when this position is seen in juxtaposition to all the others. Political life, involving, as it always does, thinking which proceeds from opposite poles, is modified in the course of its own development by toning down the exaggeration due to one point of view by what is revealed through another. In every situation, it is, therefore, indispensable to have a total perspective which embraces all points of view.

The greatest danger to an adequate representation of the relationships which concern us in the political sphere proper lies, however, in the assumption on the part of the investigator of a passive, contemplative attitude which tends to destroy the actual interrelations which, as such, interest the man of politics. It should always be kept in mind that behind all scientific work (impersonal as it may seem) there are types of mentality which to a large extent influence the concrete form of the science.

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