Conservatism: a contribution to the sociology of knowledge

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Conservatism : a contribution to the sociology of knowledge / by Karl Mannheim ; edited and introduced by David Kettler, Volker Meja, and Nico Stehr ; translated by David Kettler and Volker Meja from a first draft by Elizabeth R. King. The present edition of Conservatism rests on a typescript of the text found among the papers, after his death in 1980, of Paul Kecskemeti, who played an important role in the posthumous publication of several works of Mannheim. We are grateful to Kurt H. Wolff (Brandeis University) and to Martin Rein (M.I.T.) for gaining us access to Kecskemeti’s papers. The unedited German typescript has been deposited, together with other papers left by Kecskemeti, at the Brandeis University Library in Waltham, Massachusetts. The original text has been published by the present editors in German, under the title Konservatismus: Ein Beitrag zur Soziologie des Wissens (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1984). The editorial and translation work on this book as well as the research on our introduction was financially supported by the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Trent University, the University of Alberta and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We have benefited from the help of Juan E. Corradi (New York), Joseph Gabel (Paris), Eva Gabor (Budapest), Ingrid Gilcher (Heidelberg), M. Rainer Lepsius (Heidelberg), A. P. Simonds (Boston), and Henk Woldring (Amsterdam). We are, as always, very grateful to Laura C. Hargrave for her efforts in readying the manuscript for publication. Acknowledgements...........................................................................vii Introduction: The design of Conservatism, by David Kettler, Volker Meja and Nico Stehr.....1 Conservatism: A Contribution to the Sociology of Knowledge.................................27 Contents...................................................................................28 Part 1: General problems...................................................................31 Part II: Conservatism: its concept and its nature..........................................72 Part III: Early conservatism in Germany...................................................111 Notes.....................................................................................189 Bibliography..............................................................................234 A note on the text and translation........................................................244 Index.....................................................................................252