<P> Under the influence of this doctrine, and of Phenomenology, the Hungarian - born German sociologist Karl Mannheim (1893--1947) gave impetus to the growth of the sociology of knowledge with his Ideologie und Utopie (1929, translated and extended in 1936 as Ideology and Utopia), although the term had been introduced five years earlier by the co-founder of the movement, the German philosopher, phenomenologist and social theorist Max Scheler (1874--1928), in Versuche zu einer Soziologie des Wissens (1924, Attempts at a Sociology of Knowledge). </P> <P> Mannheim feared that this interpretation could be seen to claim that all knowledge and beliefs are the products of socio - political forces since this form of relativism is self - defeating (if it is true, then it too is merely a product of socio - political forces and has no claim to truth and no persuasive force). Mannheim believed that relativism was a strange mixture of modern and ancient beliefs in that it contained within itself a belief in an absolute truth which was true for all times and places (the ancient view most often associated with Plato) and condemned other truth claims because they could not achieve this level of objectivity (an idea gleaned from Marx). Mannheim sought to escape this problem with the idea of' relationism' . This is the idea that certain things are true only in certain times and places (a view influenced by pragmatism) however, this does not make them less true . Mannheim felt that a stratum of free - floating intellectuals (who he claimed were only loosely anchored to the class structure of society) could most perfectly realize this form of truth by creating a "dynamic synthesis" of the ideologies of other groups . </P> <P> Phenomenological sociology is the study of the formal structures of concrete social existence as made available in and through the analytical description of acts of intentional consciousness . The "object" of such an analysis is the meaningful lived world of everyday life: the "Lebenswelt", or life - world (Husserl: 1889). The task, like that of every other phenomenological investigation, is to describe the formal structures of this object of investigation in subjective terms, as an object - constituted - in - and - for - consciousness (Gurwitsch: 1964). That which makes such a description different from the "naive" subjective descriptions of the man in the street, or those of the traditional, positivist social scientist, is the utilization of phenomenological methods . </P> <P> The leading proponent of phenomenological sociology was Alfred Schütz (1899--1959). Schütz sought to provide a critical philosophical foundation for Max Weber's interpretive sociology through the use of phenomenological methods derived from the transcendental phenomenological investigations of Edmund Husserl (1859--1938). Husserl's work was directed at establishing the formal structures of intentional consciousness . Schütz's work was directed at establishing the formal structures of the Life - world (Schütz: 1980). Husserl's work was conducted as a transcendental phenomenology of consciousness . Schütz's work was conducted as a mundane phenomenology of the Life - world (Natanson: 1974). The difference in their research projects lies at the level of analysis, the objects taken as topics of study, and the type of phenomenological reduction that is employed for the purposes of analysis . </P>

Who advocates sociology of knowledge as a central focus of his writing in sociology