Sociology of Knowledge as Intellectual History
Abstract
Over the last 50 years the sociology of knowledge produced robust traditions in Britain, America, and Israel. Though many of these approaches were inspired by German roots, Wissenschaftsgeschichte in Germany split into two fields: history of science and the study of scholarly practices and institutions. This paper reviews these divergent trajectories and suggests how intellectual history might draw on the wider field of sociology of knowledge—including biography, network theory, and institutional history. As a case study I examine the history of the research university and argue that we should apply the methods of sociology of knowledge to contextualize intellectual history.