Investigation of Lettersa as Knowledge Aggregates: Opportunities and Limitations

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the possibilities of sociological research of letters as specific texts. The author, basing on his own conception in the field of the sociology of knowledge, describes the main epistemological, methodological and procedural possibilities and limitations that sociologists meet in analyzing letters as knowledge aggregates. In particular, using the results of his own research, the author demonstrates how letters can be analyzed from the point of view of the sociology of knowledge as an aggregate constructed from judgments, which are the parts of specific universes or a particular universe. The author comes to the conclusion that letters can be investigated not only as a source of sociological information (“what is displayed in them”), but also as an actual aggregated set of knowledge judgments.