The sociology of knowledge and epistemology

The sociology of knowledge reaches into the sphere of two sciences: it is sociology, and it is the science of knowledge. The task of analysing its relationship to other disciplines addresses themselves to knowledge and cognition, foremost among them in epistemology. The investigation focuses on the nature of the sociological interpretation, that is, on the question of whether the sociology of knowledge can make assertions about the validity of the propositions it interprets as manifestations of social being. The insights of the sociology of knowledge hardly compel a revision of the basic assumptions of the epistemology that prevailing today. Every attempt to link sociologism with the sociology of knowledge leads a complete failure and thus a discrediting of the sociology of knowledge. Only if the sociology of knowledge gives up its claim to provide a comprehensive sociological interpretation and orientation in the world that then become a science.