Abstract

Concentrating her criticism on the reduction of action to mere behaviour and the self-comprehension of sociology as "central science", Hannah Arendt criticizes the social sciences and above all Karl Mannheim's "sociology of knowledge" and the concept of ideology which it uses reducing every spiritual activity to the social sphere and public being. Such reduction results in negating the possibility of a philosophical reflection. The comparison between Hannah Arendt and Karl Mannheim represents an extraordinary occasion of renewal for the sociology of knowledge, a discipline which cannot limit itself to understanding the society or organizing it. It must also be able to criticize it in order to fulfil itself and achieve its aims.