Alvin Gouldner and the sociology of ideas: Lessons from Enter Plato

Alvin Gouldner's 1965 book Enter Plato is one of the most important contributions ever made to the sociology of ideas. Overshadowed soon after its publication, however, by Gouldner's more controversial work, The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology, the earlier book has suffered neglect. In an effort to correct this situation, we situate Enter Plato against the backdrop of other mid-twentieth-century works in the sociology of knowledge and related areas, arguing that Gouldner's study was one of the first sustained responses to Robert K. Merton's call for a sociology of knowledge that would steer a middle course between the abstract, speculative tendencies of the field's European founders and the relatively atheoretical contributions of their American counterparts. We build on this interpretation to offer a contemporary sociological appraisal of Enter Plato, considering its positive and negative lessons for sociologists of knowledge and ideas at the present time.