Arquivo para May 10th, 2017
Utopia and a new time
10
May
In order to understand the importance of Ideology and Utopia and the 
beginning of the discussion from Karl Mannheim (1893-1947), it should be remembered that this one besides addressing the subjects was student of Alfred Weber and work colleague of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer , besides him (Mannheim) taught at London School Economics, and he being the first to write on Ideology and Utopia.
This shows the profile of someone who wrote before the age or information society, made a systematization of a sociology of knowledge, an important source for an initial conception of what Edgar Morin will later define as “complexity”.
Mannheim, who did not live the modern information society, already analyzed the generational changes that each generation means: “The entrance of new people obstructs the constantly accumulated goods, but also unconsciously produces new selection and revision in the field of what is available; It teaches us to forget what is no longer useful and to desire what has not yet been conquered “(Mannheim 1972: 532).
The concept of utopia in Mannheim comprises a form of group mentality, nowadays potentialized by the media, which analogously to ideology, also surpasses what is termed by reality and points to a possible future, that is, virtual.
Taking the concept of reality as that which is socio-historically constructed by a dominant group, it must be understood as a dialogue with the tradition of Gadamer, the utopian possibility is, according to Mannheim (1972, 216) “only those orientations which, reality, tend to be transformed into conduct, to shake, partially or totally, the order of things that prevails in the moment “, that is, a new horizon is needed, according to the text capable of” transforming into conduct “, that is , change the mentality and the action. Utopia is a term coined by Thomas Morus.
The text of Ricoeur is much more complex and rich, the reading of Mannheim is not obligatory, but for those who want a systematic study, and bet on a possible utopia, in this case it is a must read, previous to the Ideology and Utopia, book of Ricoeur.
References: MANNHEIM, Karl. Ideology and Utopia. Ideology and Utopia. London: Routledge, 1936 (pages in Brazilian edition 1972).
