Free-floating intellectuals or free-floating intelligentsia (German: Freischwebende Intelligenz) is a term from the sociology of knowledge that was used by the sociologist and philosopher Karl Mannheim in 1929, but was originally coined by the sociologist Alfred Weber.[1] It includes the members of the intelligentsia, whose relative independence as a socially undefined class allows them to break away from the normative thinking of their environment and to act independently of social class conditions. The intellectual floats (relatively) freely above things and tasks and is therefore less tied to ideology than other people. Karl Mannheim applied this to the political as well as the economic and cultural areas. According to Mannheim, the socially free-floating intellectuals is unbound, critical and sensitive. It is able to represent pluralistic views and have a positive impact on social conditions.[citation needed]
Mannheim sought a way out of the dilemma that the human mind moves within social bonds and biases in contemplation, reasoning and knowledge, but on the other hand wants to and, in his opinion, can find unadulterated truths.[2][3][4][5][6]
Reception
Critics dispute that it is possible to transcend the historical, social, cultural and psychological determinants for a particular group in society.[citation needed]
According to Magnus Klaue, Mannheim called free-floating intellectuals the “milieu that shaped the Weimar Republic, which emerged as a result of the crisis of the educated middle class and in which (even then often unemployed) academics, private scholars, wealthy but professionally unambitious middle-class sons and lumpen intellectuals came together.” He has want to point out both the possibilities of this milieu for social and intellectual independence and the danger that it sees itself as an intellectual avant-garde, rejects bourgeois normality as bourgeois and wants to impose its own moral views on the “backward” majority.[7]
^Mannheim, K. (1936). Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. Routledge. In this work, Mannheim discusses the influence of social contexts on knowledge and the possibility of attaining objective truths despite these influences.
^Kuschel, K. (2007). "Karl Mannheim: Sociology of Knowledge and Ideology." In The Routledge Companion to Social Theory, edited by Anthony Elliott. Routledge. This text provides a comprehensive overview of Mannheim's theories and their implications.
^Magnus Klaue: Öko-Bonzen: Die Grünen und die Interessen der Oberschicht, Welt Online, 10. Juli 2024.
Further reading
Dirk Hoeges: Kontroverse am Abgrund. Ernst Robert Curtius und Karl Mannheim. Intellektuelle und „freischwebende Intelligenz“ in der Weimarer Republik. Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3596109671. This book, published in 1994 by Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, appears to be available only in German, not in English.
Kurt Lenk: Der Ideologiebegriff und die Marxkonzeption in der deutschen Wissenssoziologie. 1961.
Kurt Lenk: Ideologie. Ideologiekritik und Wissenssoziologie. Campus, 1984.
Karl Mannheim: Ideologie und Utopie. (1929) 8. Auflage. Klostermann, 1995, ISBN 3465028228.
Karl Mannheim: Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge, first published in English in 1936, translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils, combining various writings of Mannheim, including his original "Ideologie und Utopie" (Parts II-IV) and an article titled "Wissenssoziologie," along with a new introduction written specifically for the English edition.
Mannheim, Karl. Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. Routledge, 1936. Mannheim's seminal work discusses the concept of the "free-floating intelligentsia" and its role in the sociology of knowledge, explaining how this group is able to transcend societal norms and ideologies to offer critical and pluralistic perspectives.
Tverdota, G. "Karl Mannheim and the Sociology of Intelligence." Boreal, 2022. This paper provides an analysis of Mannheim's concept of the free-floating intelligentsia, examining how it relates to the broader field of sociology and its application across various domains.
Kemple, T. "Mannheim's Pendulum: Refiguring Legal Cosmopolitanism." University of California Irvine Law Review, 2014. This article explores Mannheim's ideas on free-floating intelligentsia and their implications for legal and social theory.
Restivo, S. "Mannheim's Free-Floating Intelligentsia: The Role of Closeness and Distance in the Analysis of Society." Academia.edu, 2011. Restivo's work provides insights into how Mannheim’s notion of the free-floating intelligentsia can be applied to understanding the dynamics of social knowledge and ideology.
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