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Dominick LaCapra,
Emile Durkheim: Sociologist and Philosopher
Critical
Studies in the Humanities
In
Emile Durkheim: Sociologist and Philosopher, Dominick
LaCapra, a leading theoretical historian, offers an important
revised critical analysis of Durkheim’s methodological and
philosophical pursuits, with an emphasis on the metaphysical,
epistemological, and ethical problems inherent in forming constructs
of the cultural and social spheres. [While Durkheim’s thought did
not “influence significantly, if at all, the writings of Roland
Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia
Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, Jean-François Lyotard and other recent
thinkers…the tradition he helped initiate was quite important for
such figures as Pierre Bourdieu, [Marcel Mauss], Claude
Lévi-Strauss, and members of the Annales school.”] In addition to
presenting Durkheim as a crucial resource for current theoretical
sociologists, LaCapra’s revised study situates Durkheim’s major
writings in relation to the current poststructuralist critiques of
one of his central issues, “the role of reason in life and its
relation to normative limits and the sentiment of solidarity among
members of society.” Emile Durkheim: Sociologist and Philosopher
is a theoretically charged reexamination of the historical and
intellectual contexts that gave rise to a unique method of
philosophical sociology, providing readers from a wide range of
interests with an important critical reappraisal of Durkheim’s life
and writings.
“While I have revised certain formulations, added material, and
updated a number of footnotes, I have retained much that appeared in
the original edition of this, my first book. Still, there are times
when supplementary statements and seemingly small changes of
inflection may significantly transform meanings. In any case, I
would maintain that the issues raised in the book still preoccupy
us, especially on the level of basic or background assumptions.
Perhaps the key ethical and political issue in this respect is the
actual and desirable interaction between legitimate limits and
excessive overtures or transgressive initiatives — a recurrent issue
that must always be further differentiated with respect to different
sociohistorical contexts and groups. This is a crucial issue in the
relation between structuralism and poststructuralism, and it calls
not for an either/or decision but for an analysis of complex
relations and difficult choices in particular circumstances.”
— Dominick LaCapra
Contents
Foreword
Preface, 2001
1. Introduction
2. Durkheim’s Milieu
3. The Division of
Social Labor: Quo Vadis; Mechanical and Organic Solidarity;
Conscience Collective; Crime and Punishment; Traditional
Differentiation; Theory of Change; Residual Doubts; Contract and
Solidarity; Modern Social Pathology
4. Suicide and
Solidarity: The Object and Limitations of Suicide; Anomie and
Egoism; Altruism and Fatalism; Durkheim and Weber; From Analysis to
Reform
5. Theory and
Practice: Sociology, History, and Reform; Corporatism; The
Individual and Society
6. The Sacred and
Society: The Theory of Religion; Sociology and Epistemology;
Social Metaphysic
Epilogue
Selected Bibliography
Index
Author
Dominick LaCapra is a member of the History department at Cornell
University where he is currently Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor
of Humanistic Studies. In the course of his distinguished career
Professor LaCapra’s principal contributions have been to
intellectual and cultural history and, in addition, he has been a
critical voice in poststructuralism, post-Frankfurt school thought,
and the so-called new historicism. He is the author of eleven books
and the editor or co-editor of two others.
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