Abstract

Mannheim held a paradoxical position when he acknowledged that since all ideologies are false, yet all systems of social, political, and historical thought are ideologies, it followed that his own sociological perspectives were false. To escape from the implications of this relativistic position, he stated that historical perspectives must be viewed as part of a dynamic world. Though there exists an objective historical reality, historical knowledge is relative to the social circumstances of a particular time. However, Mannheim's theory rests on two assumptions which state that social -historical thought is determined by group economic and political interests and that there is a reality distinct from what language describes. However, by rejecting Mannheim's view and considering language an essential component of reality, ideology is freed from questions of objective validity and made available for rational inquiry