Karl Mannheim and his social science of the human mind is examined, with reference to the scientific interplay of biography and social context. Mannheim's knowledge architecture is much more than a sociology of knowledge (and education), it is a social ecology of the human mind. In addition, it is about the economic distribution of human living chances via knowledge and learning. This approach of free intelligence will regain practical actuality in our technological transition age towards the information society, where value creation will get more knowledge-intense than ever before in human history. However, the dominant tendency of economism, i.e. the subordination of social relationships to economic rent and monetary tools of exchange, must be resolved by fairer models of human economic action.