A Sociology of Knowledge

C. Wright Mills’s interest in the sociology of knowledge stemmed from his initial attraction to pragmatic philosophy (see Chap. 1 ), which is oriented toward action, and calls for considering theoretical conceptions in terms of their practical consequences. In Mills’s view, sociologists had to raise theoretical questions empirically and to contextualize their own points of view. For sociology itself must be perceived as one of the components of the “cultural apparatus” in a given society, meaning “one of the organizations and milieux in which artistic, intellectual, and scientific work goes on, and by which entertainment and information are produced and distributed” (Mills, 1959a, p. 204). Mills called for a reflexive sociology that questioned the social foundations of philosophy and sociology.