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The article focuses on the sociology of knowledge. Despite occasional outbursts, the sociology of knowledge has failed to emerge as a clearly defined area of research. Many social scientists have endeavored to define the sociology of knowledge as a disciplinary matrix, whose main identifying feature would be to empirically explain the relationship between ideas and social structure. Sociologist Karl Mannheim and his sociology of knowledge have been prominent targets for the presentist project in the social sciences, most notably through the efforts of another sociologist Robert Merton. The practice of sociology of knowledge is at odds with the overall concerns of a scientific community to enforce consensus of belief and method among its members. Despite the failure of Merton's groundwork to give form and substance to the sociology of knowledge, an inchoate field addressing similar issues has emerged.