Connectivism

Mannheim is generally considered as the founder and master of the sociology of knowledge. The vast majority of academic research in Mannheim is mainly concentrated on his sociology of knowledge rather than the other aspects of his research. Some people from academy criticize Mannheim's research methods and theoretical research, and the most severe criticism is from the tendency of relativism. This paper attempts to research and resolve these problems to some extent. This paper is written around Connectivism,for it is the key word in this paper. Mannheim thought that Connectivism refers to the particular environment and bases on the specific thinking framework to get a certain meaning.This paper puts forward the advantage of Connectivism by analyzing and contrasting Connectivism, Absolutism and Relativism. This advantage is mainly embodied in three aspects: judgment, comprehension and truth. After studying Mannheim, The writer maintains Connectivism is the foundation of knowing Mannheim. At first, Connectivism is the basic proposition about being and knowledge; The second, Connectivism is the important method in Mannheim's research; At last, Connectivism is the way to resolve the dilemma of thought.According to Mannheim's research,this paper finds out that connectivism is not only the foundation of knowing Mannheim, but more to prevent the modern thought developing something others from absolutism and personally pushing itself into the agnostic abyss of relativism.