GEERTZ, KUHN AND THE IDEA OF A CULTURAL PARADIGM

This paper examines the history of the sociology of knowledge in light of the two problems that have systematically thwarted all efforts to fulfil its promise: the self-defeating relativization of knowledge and the circularity of knowledge and society that the theories imply. The paper looks at the strategies that social scientists have developed t o overcome (and sometimes ignore) these problems, and building on the work of Clifford Geertz and Thomas Kuhn advances the concept of a cult ural paradigm as an alternative approach. To clarify the questions of the sociology of knowledge and exemplify the usefulness of the new per spective, the paper briefly explores the historical and cultural conte xts that helped constitute an idea of the person as a player of roles. Shakespeare notwithstanding, the perception of the person as a role-p layer, the paper suggests, is to be seen as a central element in the p roduction of modernity - of an eminently American, eminently middle-cl ass sort of modernity whose development it reflected and helped to sha pe. The incorporation rather than the denial of relativism and circula rity within this framework are discussed in the conclusion.