A Durkheimian Quest: Solidarity and the SacredDurkheim, in his very role as a "founding father" of a new social science has become like a figure in an old religious painting, enshrouded in myth and encrusted in layers of thick, impenetrable varnish. This book undertakes detailed, up-to-date investigations of Durkheim's work in an effort to restore its freshness and reveal it as originally created. These investigations explore his particular ideas, within an overall narrative of his initial problematic search for solidarity, how it became a quest for the sacred, and how, at the end of his life, he embarked on a project for a new great work on ethics. A theme running through this is his concern with a modern world in crisis and a hope in social and moral reform. Accordingly, the book concludes with a set of essays on modern times and on a crisis that Durkheim thought would pass but which now seems here to stay. |
Contents
1 | |
Chapter 2 The Creation of The Division of Labour | 19 |
The Division of Labour | 37 |
Chapter 4 An Intellectual Crisis | 75 |
Chapter 5 The Creation of The Elemental Forms | 93 |
The Elemental Forms | 111 |
Chapter 7 Transparence or Transfiguration? | 151 |
Chapter 8 Towards a New Great Work | 161 |
Part 2 Essays on Modern Times | 173 |
Essay 1 Power Struggles | 175 |
Essay 2 Hope | 187 |
Essay 3 Art | 199 |
Essay 4 Surviving Capitalism | 215 |
Notes | 229 |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract aesthetic Année sociologique anomie argument aspirations attachment Australia autonomy basic belief book 1 chapter career churingas clan collective consciousness collective effervescent concern constitute contract core crisis critique cult discourse discussion division of labour Dreyfus Affair dualism Durkheim Durkheimian dynamic economic effervescence Elemental Forms emphasizes empiricism energies enlightenment entails essay essential ethics ethnographic everyday functionalist going guild socialism helps hope idea ideal impersonal force individual insists intermediate groups involves issue Kamilaroi Kurnai lectures logic material Mauss microsocial modern solidarity modern world Montesquieu moral neoliberal nonetheless nowadays occupational groups organization overall person politics practical reform relations religion religious republic republican Revolution rite ritual role sacred and profane sacred things secular social science social world society sociologique sociology soul Spencer and Gillen story symbolism thanks theoretical theory thesis thought tion totemic transfiguration underlying understand vast whole Wollunqua