Emile Durkheim - A Biography - A Biography

Informationen zum Autor Marcel Fournier is professor of sociology at the University of Montreal. Klappentext This book will become the standard work on the life and thought of Émile Durkheim, one of the great founding fathers of sociology. Durkheim remains one of the most widely read thinkers in the social sciences and every student of sociology, anthropology and related subjects must study his now-classic books. He brought about a revolution in the social sciences: the defence of the autonomy of sociology as a science, the systematic elaboration of rules and methods for studying the social, the condemnation of racial theories, the critique of Eurocentrism and the rehabilitation of the humanity of 'the primitive'. He defended the dignity of the individual, the freedom of the press, democratic institutions and the essential liberal values of tolerance and pluralism. At the same time he was critical of laisser-faire economics and he defended the values of solidarity and community life. In many ways, Durkheim's rich intellectual heritage has become part of the self-understanding of our time.Despite his enormous influence, the last major biography of Durkheim appeared more than 30 years ago. Since then, the opening up of archives and the discovery of manuscripts, correspondence with friends and close collaborators, administrative reports and notes taken by students have all provided a wealth of new material about his life and work. Meticulously documented, Marcel Fournier's new biography sheds fresh light on Durkheim's personality and character, his relationship with Judaism, his family life, his relations with friends and collaborators, his political and administrative responsibilities and his political views.This book will be indispensable to students and scholars throughout the social sciences and will appeal to a wide readership interested in knowing more about the life and work of one of the most original and influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Zusammenfassung This book will become the standard work on the life and thought of Emile Durkheim, one of the great founding fathers of sociology. Durkheim remains one of the most widely read thinkers in the social sciences and every student of sociology, anthropology and related subjects must study his now-classic books. Inhaltsverzeichnis INTRODUCTION Myths and Received Ideas Some Enigmas: New Documents The Life and Work of Durkheim Durkheim, Mauss & Co The Specific Intellectual Fin de siècle Melancholy: A World Changes ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PART ONE: THE YOUNG DURKHEIM 1. A Jewish Education Respect for the Law and Devotion to the Book Embroidery: Extra Income A Humiliating Defeat Education: A Weapon 2. Ecole Normale Supérieure The Metaphysician: A Formidable Dialectician With the Republicans Against Dilettantism Towards Rationalism The Agrégation: A Very Difficult Ordeal 3. 'Schopen' at the Lycée Professeur de lycée The Passion for Knowledge The Fashion for Pessimism The Faculties of the Soul. Conscious/Unconscious On Methodology Egoism/Altruism: Society Man is a Sociable Animal And God É The Noble Sadness of Research The Revue philosophique: Towards Sociology 'Something is not Right' A Research Programme 4. Travels in Germany Anthropology and the 'New Psychology' 'We Have A Lot to Learn from Germany' Towards a Positive Science of Ethics Individual or State? Back to the Lycée PART TWO: THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 5. The Bordeaux Years: Pedagogy and the Social Sciences 'A Large and Happy City' Pedagogy and the Social Sciences A Good Marriage 'What Has t...

List of contents

INTRODUCTION
Myths and Received Ideas
Some Enigmas: New Documents
The Life and Work of Durkheim
Durkheim, Mauss & Co
The Specific Intellectual
Fin de siècle Melancholy: A World Changes
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PART ONE: THE YOUNG DURKHEIM
1. A Jewish Education
Respect for the Law and Devotion to the Book
Embroidery: Extra Income
A Humiliating Defeat
Education: A Weapon
2. Ecole Normale Supérieure
The Metaphysician: A Formidable Dialectician
With the Republicans
Against Dilettantism
Towards Rationalism
The Agrégation: A Very Difficult Ordeal
3. 'Schopen' at the Lycée
Professeur de lycée
The Passion for Knowledge
The Fashion for Pessimism
The Faculties of the Soul. Conscious/Unconscious
On Methodology
Egoism/Altruism: Society
Man is a Sociable Animal
And God É
The Noble Sadness of Research
The Revue philosophique: Towards Sociology
'Something is not Right'
A Research Programme
4. Travels in Germany
Anthropology and the 'New Psychology'
'We Have A Lot to Learn from Germany'
Towards a Positive Science of Ethics
Individual or State?
Back to the Lycée
PART TWO: THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY
5. The Bordeaux Years: Pedagogy and the Social Sciences
'A Large and Happy City'
Pedagogy and the Social Sciences
A Good Marriage
'What Has to be Done Has to be Done'
New Colleagues
Alfred Espinas: 'The First to be Drawn to Sociology'
The Bordeaux School
Classes and Lectures
First Course on the Social Sciences
Pedagogy: A Practical Theory
Religion: A Sociological Phenomenon
Forms of Sociability: The Family
Marriage and Inheritance
'Happiness is Such a Relative Thing'
The Critique of Economics
Long Live The (French) Revolution
A Young German Author: Ferdinand Tönnies
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Sociologist
A Nephew's Education
6. Individual and Society: The Social Bond. The Doctoral Thesis
Montesquieu and Political Science
The Division of Labour?
Crime and Punishment. Types of Solidarity
'Long Live Cooperation, Make Room for Individual Disagreements!'
The Struggle for Survival
Anomie
A Celebration of Work
The Utopia of a World Society
The Soutenance
A Few Misunderstandings
A Message to Socialists 'Be Clear and United'
Controversy
7. An Object, A Method and Some Rules
A Position in Paris? The 'Espinas Affair'
Sociology and Psychology
An Observer in Paris
René Worms: A Tireless Organizer
Allies Amongst The Philosophers?
Célestin Bouglé and the Younger Generation
Some Good Reasons for Writing 'The Method'
The Normal and the Pathological
The Explanation for the Social Lies in Society
For or Against?
8 1895: The Revelation
'The Year of Ethics'
New Courses
Reforming the Teaching of Philosophy
A Discovery: The Vital Role of Religion
The 'Religious Sciences' Section: Sylvain Lévy
Marriage or Cohabitation?
Crime and Mental Health
The International Exhibition of 1895: Popularizing Sociology
A History of Socialism
Sociology and Democracy: Andler Versus Durkheim
A Moral Crisis?
PART THREE: A JOURNAL AND A TEAM
9 Converts: From Suicide to L'Année sociologique
The Nephew's 'Personal Work'
In Praise of Taine
Suicide, or 'Rationalist Empiricism'
Alcoholism and Heredity. The Critique of Racism
Imitation
The Taste for Free Enquiry and The Taste for Learning
In Praise of Marriage and Large Families
The Beneficial Effects of Revolutions and Wars
The Altruism of Lower Societies
The Dangers of Divorce
A World of Emotions
The Case for Decentralization
'Slashing at Water'
10 L'Année sociologique: Birth of a Team
A Crop of Journals
Plans for a Journal: Negotiations
Making Converts
'Let Us Set to Work with a Good Heart'
A Moment of Discouragement
'We Will Do Better Another Time'
Publication
Methodical Work
A New Research Programme

Report

Winner of the 2014 ASA 'History of Sociology Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award
"Fournier's remarkable work of scholarship is a fitting tribute to a man who was an innovative and influential thinker, and who dedicated his entire career to advancing the cause of sociology."
Irish Times
"Definitive ... I doubt that we are likely to see another appraisal of Durkheim's life as systematic as Marcel Fournier's very soon. He has given the great man a decent burial."
Literary Review
"A monument of painstaking scholarship. It draws on a rich cache of newly available documents and will be an indispensable source for the foreseeable future."
Times Literary Supplement
"Durkheim comes alive; for that we owe Fournier a debt of gratitude: Essential"
Choice
"This beautifully translated book provides a rich, exhaustive, and exhausting account of Durkheim as one of the central founders of sociology, and of the era of French intellectual and social history in which he lived."
Church Times
"Marcel Fournier sets a new standard for depth of scholarship and vividness of exposition in recovering the life of the founder of sociology. It ranks with the very small number of great intellectual biographies of those who laid down the tracks of modern social thought."
Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania
 
"Fournier is the greatest living scholar of French sociology. With this work, he gives us a new Durkheim, a man broiled in the political controversies of his time, an academic patriarch who laid the foundations for a more cultural sociology."
Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University
 
"Marcel Fournier has provided a comprehensive intellectual biography of a key founder of modern sociology: Émile Durkheim. It is an invaluable complement to Steven Lukes's earlier Émile Durkheim in that it provides in meticulous detail newly available contextual data, particularly of the last period in Durkheim's life, such as his concern over the fate of Jewish Russian immigrants and the role of the modern university."
Edward A. Tiryakian, Professor Emeritus, Duke University
"Undoubtedly Émile Durkheim, A Biography takes our understanding of the French master to another level."
Sam Pryke, University of Wolverhampton

Product details

• Authors: M Fournier, Marcel Fournier, FOURNIER MARCEL
• Assisted by: David Macey (Translation)
• Publisher: Polity Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 07.12.2012
• EAN: 9780745646459
• ISBN: 978-0-7456-4645-9
• No. of pages: 700
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Biographies, autobiographies; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Soziologie, Gesellschaftstheorie, Sociology, Social Theory, Biography: philosophy and social sciences, Zeitgenössische Sozialtheorie, Contemporary Social Theory, Durkheim, sociology, biography