The sociology of knowledge, on which I will lecture, is concerned with how knowledge is shaped by sociological realities. It asks: “Who, located when and where, saw the world just this way – and not otherwise?” That question was posed by Karl Mannheim – and I will begin by introducing who, located when and where, he was.
In this class the subject matter – knowledge – will be available to us via a weekly newsletter, which we will read parts of. The newsletter is called Aeon+Psyche and is available, for free, at this website: https://aeon.co/ If you sign up for the weekly version it will arrive in your email every Friday – which is perfect for a Tuesday class.
The contents include articles and videos from all fields of knowledge. We will all read the main article, identifiable because it is headlined in the subject line of the email. Additionally, everyone will watch a video of interest to them. I will read and watch everything, and others may read and watch more – so we will all have plenty of knowledge to discuss! This course will run on two tracks: lectures and discussion. Sometimes they will cross, sometimes they will just run side-by-side, and sometimes they will jostle each other.