This is a rich compact book. I came across it while doing reading on epistemology. This book is well suited for an organized reading group. It is short but dense and should probably both be read slowly and read again. I have read it without the benefit of a reading group. Until I have read the book again, the best summary I can give is the following passages from the book.
“It will be enough, for our purposes, to define ‘reality’ as a quality appertaining to phenomena that we recognize as having a being independent of our own volition (we cannot ‘wish them away’), and to define ‘knowledge’ as the certainty that phenomena are real and that they possess specific characteristics.”
“It is our contention, then, that the sociology of knowledge must concern itself with whatever passes for ‘knowledge’ in a society, regardless of the ultimate validity or invalidity (by whatever criteria) of such ‘knowledge.’ And insofar as all human ‘knowledge’ is developed, transmitted and maintained in social situations, the sociology of knowledge must seek to understand the processes by which this is done in such a way that a taken-for-granted ‘reality’ congeals for the man in the street. In other words, we contend that the sociology of knowledge is concerned with the analysis of the social construction of reality.”
“The theoretical formulations of reality, whether they be scientific or philosophical or even mythological, do not exhaust what is ‘real’ for the members of a society. Since this is so, the sociology of knowledge must first of all concern itself with what people ‘know’ as ‘reality’ in their everyday, non- or pre-theoretical lives. In other words, commonsense ‘knowledge’ rather than ‘ideas’ must be the central focus for the sociology of knowledge. It is precisely this ‘knowledge’ that constitutes the fabric of meanings without which no society could exist.”
Two earlier writers on the sociology of knowledge cited by Berger and Luckmann are Karl Mannheim,
Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge
and Werner Stark,
The Sociology of Knowledge: Toward a Deeper Understanding of the History of Ideas
.
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Top reviews from other countries
Nilesh wasnik
Very nice thought provoking book
Reviewed in India on April 8, 2022
Nilesh wasnik
Reviewed in India on April 8, 2022
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red wolf
For anyone interested in sociology and epistemology in general.
Reviewed in Italy on February 8, 2021Client d'Amazon
Ouvrage indispensable pour qui veut comprendre l'ontologie constructiviste.
Reviewed in France on June 15, 2017