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War Painters and Western Science
Author(s) -
Chubin Daryl E.,
Weinstein Jay
Publication year - 1987
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.1987.tb01038.x
Subject(s) - parallels , sociology , relativism , epistemology , politics , nazism , epoch (astronomy) , painting , social science , aesthetics , law , history , philosophy , political science , art history , computer science , mechanical engineering , stars , computer vision , engineering
This essay focuses on one epoch in one culture, the “war painter” system in Nazi Germany, and considers its social trappings (professional, political) as characteristics shared by another epoch and culture, evaluation systems in contemporary Western science. The parallels are instructive not only for a self‐critical sociology of knowledge such as that envisioned by Karl Mannheim and Alvin Gouldner, but moreover as an anthropological test of cultural relativism as explanation. If society with its fixed hierarchies can no longer give us a safe orientation and a basis for self evaluation, we must for that very reason meet the challenge of developing a new pattern of orientation based upon a deeper and more genuine human truth…. This is the real task of the democratized age, and it is a task yet to be done.