The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge by Peter L. BergerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wanted to read this book because I wanted to find out the extent to which certain notions, which we take for granted, are socially constructed. More specifically, I wanted to find out the extent to which gender was socially constructed.
If you think of psychology as the software of the mind, then sociology of knowledge would be the the foundations on which such software runs, i.e. the hardware. Sociology of knowledge attempts to answer questions that have to do with the way we view reality. Such questions are difficult because of their dialectical nature.
The word dialectical is critical when it comes to understanding the sociology of knowledge. The word refers to the logic of appearances and and of illusions. Put simply, if something is dialectic it means one can view it, even though it is the same thing, in different ways depending on the perspective one assumes.
The central dialectic in this book concerns with the relationship between objective and subjective reality. You see, on the one hand, the mind constructs reality through social means, and on the other, the society, where which the mind exists in, constructs the mind. This book discusses the details of such dialectic relationship, for example, the role of language when it comes to defining reality for an individual.
The first part 'Society as Objective Reality' was rather boring and I found myself struggling to go through it. But the second part 'Society as Subjective Reality' was rewarding and made my initial efforts worth it. I'm not sure if what the authors are saying is entirely true but I think they had a lot of good points.
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