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The Problem of Individuality in Karl Mannheim's Sociology
Author(s) -
Weinstein Deena,
Weinstein Michael A.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1982.tb01258.x
Subject(s) - individualism , sociology , solidarity , existentialism , democratization , nature versus nurture , epistemology , ideal (ethics) , democracy , law , philosophy , political science , politics , anthropology
Karl Mannheim's intellectual career shows a consistent interest in the moral aim of keeping in productive tension individuality and social solidarity. For Mannheim the modern individual emerges from and is necessary to the continuance of a complex social process including differentiation, delocalization, abstraction, and democratization. Yet modern individuals surpass and may become subversive of the social conditions that nurture them, either through separation from society in the “bottomless individualism” of existential freedom or the submission to directionless crowd emotion. Once the individual has been released in society the only moral basis for solidarity is voluntary commitment, which Mannheim did not believe is a sufficient guarantor of society's survival because it does not provide unconditional backing for social norms. In his late work Mannheim feared that individuality would be effaced by technical manipulation of the mind, though he maintained the ideal that society should create strong individuals.