Toward a New View of the Sociology of Knowledge

This chapter addresses five topics: the problem of philosophy; the problem of theory; the problem of the nature of the relationships among culture, social structure, and personality; the problem of the hierarchy of knowledge; and the problem of research methods and data. It presents a broad sketch of how the sociology of knowledge fits into general sociological theory and therefore why it should be integrated into that theory. The chapter describes very succinctly a theoretical model for social system analysis that helps to locate the nature and tasks of the sociology of knowledge as part of general sociology. The predominant, traditional view of the sociology of knowledge is preoccupied, to a degree that is no longer the case in other sociological specialties, by the philosophical problems of knowledge. The new view of the sociology of knowledge recognizes, indeed insists upon, the importance of the philosophical problems of knowledge.