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Styles of Intellectualism in Weber's Historical Sociology
Author(s) -
Barrow Clyde W.
Publication year - 1990
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/soin.1990.60.1.47
Subject(s) - ideology , sociology , marxist philosophy , intellectualism , epistemology , historicism , sociology of knowledge , ideal (ethics) , ideal type , historical sociology , action (physics) , ambivalence , social science , law , philosophy , politics , psychoanalysis , physics , quantum mechanics , political science , psychology
The prevailing concept of the intellectual in contemporary sociology is an ideal type derived from Weber. Intellectuals are understood as politically disinterested, socially unattached individuals, who in their subjective intentions pursue knowledge for its own sake. Weber's ideal type thus provides the action framework for a sociology of knowledge that has been used as a direct counterclaim to Marxist theories of ideology. The author challenges this position, arguing that Weber's sociology of religion embraces important elements of a Marxist theory of ideology and thus presents an ambivalent concept of the intellectual that points toward a historicist sociology of knowledge.