Free-floating intellectuals

Ability to think independently

Free-floating intellectuals or free-floating intelligentsia 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. 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.

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