【作者简介】张雪洽 埃默里大学社会学系

【文章来源】《社会》2024年第1期

【内容提要】卡尔·曼海姆的知识社会学理论指出了社会位置对知识的形塑作用，但随后也因为其中隐含的相对主义危险而受到美国社会学界的批评，并因此被排斥于社会学主流之外。基于对该时期讨论的梳理，本文区分了相对主义的特殊形式与普遍形式，并分析了曼海姆理论中相应的回应内容。本文指出，特殊相对主义的批评不构成对曼海姆的实质解构，而针对普遍相对主义对绝对知识的维护，曼海姆的理论在认识论层面否认了绝对知识的存在。本文通过分析曼海姆所综合的德国诠释学传统、社会学视角以及魏玛共和国时期德国的政治与文化气候说明，曼海姆知识社会学的目的是理解社会精神解体的现实，而非生产中层理论意义上的因果解释。对当下的研究者理解社会意识而言，曼海姆对他所处时代相关主义心智的洞察仍不可替代。

【关 键 词】卡尔·曼海姆, 知识社会学, 认识论, 相对主义, 相关主义

【全文链接】https://www.society.shu.edu.cn/CN/Y2024/V44/I1/61

Pluralistic Society and Relationism Mind: Karl Mannheim’s Wissenssoziologie and Epistemology

Abstract: Karl Mannheim's theory of the sociology of knowledge which claimed that knowledge is shaped by social positions made him one of the founding fathers of the branch, but his contribution was also criticized by American academia for relativism， and was therefore excluded from the mainstream of sociology. This paper presents an overview of the discussions and criticisms from the period， distinguishing between specific and general forms of relativism and their countervailing responses in Mannheim's theory. On the first level， specific relativism holds that since the sociology of knowledge believes that all human knowledge is affected by the social position of its creator， the scientific nature of this argument itself is also affected by the position of its proposer. In this regard， Mannheim's point of view is that the understanding of this influence will eventually lead to a higher level of liberation， so the criticism of special relativism does not constitute a substantial deconstruction of Mannheim's theory. On the second level， general relativism accuses Mannheim's theory of threatening the overall legitimacy of social scientific knowledge. Mannheim's response to this criticism is a new type of epistemology that abandons all forms of transcendental truth. By analyzing the German hermeneutics tradition， the impact of interpretivism， and the social dissolutions and people's self-consciousness in Weimar Germany that gave rise to the sociology of knowledge， this paper shows the affinity between the society's anomie status and the vigor of the sociology of knowledge. By comparing the classic sociology of knowledge and its American counterpart， this paper argues that the purpose of Mannheim's sociology of knowledge is to understand dissolution and self-consciousness at the societal level， rather than the production of middle-range causal explanations. Therefore， the insights of Mannheim's epistemology and his new concept of relationism are still of irreplaceable importance to understand today's ideological landscape.

Key words: Karl Mannheim, Sociology of Knowledge, epistemology, relativism, relationism