Durkheim's Philosophy Lectures: Notes from the Lycée de Sens Course, 1883–1884

by Emile Durkheim , Edited and translated by Neil Gross , Robert Alun Jones , Foreword by Hans Joas

• ISBN13: 9780521630665
• ISBN10: 0521630665
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-07-19
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Moving back and forth between the history of philosophy and the contributions of philosophers in his own day, Durkheim takes up topics as diverse as philosophical psychology, logic, ethics, and metaphysics, and seeks to articulate a unified philosophical position. Remarkably, the 'social realism' that is so characteristic of his later work - where he insists, famously, that social facts cannot be reduced to psychological or economic ones, and that such facts constrain human action in important ways - is totally absent in these early lectures. For this reason, they will be of special interest to students of the history of the social sciences, for they shed important light on the course of Durkheim's intellectual development. Intellectual historians, historically-minded philosophers, and French historians will all find the lectures a valuable historical document. Insofar as they speak to the philosophical foundations of Durkheim's thought, they should also be of great interest to social theorists.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Translator's note

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Preliminary Matters

The object and method of philosophy

The object and method of philosophy (conclusion)

Science and philosophy

The divisions of philosophy

Psychology

The object and method of psychology

Faculties of the soul

On pleasure and pain

The inclinations

The emotions and passions

Theory of knowledge

External perception and its conditions. The senses

External perception. The origin of the idea of externality

External perception. On the objectivity of the idea of externality. (1) Does the external world exist? 14. External perception. On the objectivity of the idea of externality. (2) On the nature of the external world

Consciousness. On the conditions of consciousness

Consciousness. On the origin of the idea of the self

Consciousness. On the nature of the self

Reason. The definition of reason

Reason. The material of reason. (1) Principles

Reason. The material of reason. (2) Rational or first ideas

Reason. Empiricism

Reason. Evolutionism. The theory of heredity

Reason. On the objectivity of rational principles

Faculties of conception. On the association of ideas

Faculties of conception. Memory

Faculties of conception. Imagination

Faculties of conception. Sleep. Dreams. Madness

Complex operations of the mind. Attention. Comparison. Abstraction

Complex operations of the mind. Generalization. Judgment. Reasoning

The object and method of aesthetics

What is beauty

Prettiness and the sublime. Art

On activity in general. Instinct

Habit

On the will and on freedom

On freedom (continued). Psychological determinism

On freedom (conclusion). Scientific determinism. Theological fatalism

Logic

Introduction. On logic

On truth. On certainty

On certainty (conclusion)

On false certainty of error

Skepticism

Ideas. Terms. Judgments. Propositions

Definition

On the syllogism

On induction

Fallacies

On method

Method in the mathematical sciences

The methodology of the physical sciences

Method in the natural sciences

Method in the moral sciences

Method in the historical sciences

Language

Ethics

Definition and divisions of ethics

On moral responsibility

On moral law. The history of Utilitarianism

Critique of Utilitarianism. The morality of sentiment

The morality of Kant

The moral law

On duty and the good. On virtue. Rights

Division of practical ethics

Individual morality

Domestic ethics

Civic ethics

General duties of social life

General duties of social life. (1) The duty of justice

General duties of social life. (2) Charity

Summary of ethics

Metaphysics

Metaphysics. Preliminary considerations

On the soul and its existence

On the spirituality of the soul (conclusion). On materialism

The relationship between the soul and the body

On the immortality of the soul

On God. Metaphysical proofs of his existence

Critique of metaphysical proofs of the existence of God

Explanation and critique of the physiotheological proof

Critique of the physiotheological proof (conclusion). Moral proofs and the existence of God

The nature and attributes of God

The relationship between God and the world. Dualism, pantheism, and creation

The relationship between God and the world (conclusion). Providence, evil, optimism, and pessimism

Appendix: biographical glossary

Index

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