Durkheim and Postmodern Culture

by Mestrovic,Stjepan

• ISBN13: 9780202304397
• ISBN10: 0202304396
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-12-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This is an elaboration of the author’s previous efforts in Emile Durkheim and the Reformation of Sociology (1988) and The Coming Fin de Siècle (1991) to demonstrate Durkheim’s neglected relevance to postmodern discourse. The aims include finding affinities between our fin de siècle and Durkheim’s fin de siècle, and connecting the contemporary themes of rebellion against Enlightenment narratives found in postmodern culture with similar concerns found in Durkheim’s sociology and in his fin de siècle culture, contributing to Durkheimian scholarship and postmodern discourse.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	xi
Postmodernism as a Cultural Problem	1	(14)
The Plan of the Present Study	7	(6)
Notes	13	(2)
Rediscovering the Romantic Origins of Feminism	15	(12)
Reexamining Bachofen's Legacy	17	(5)
The Dynamo and Virgin Revisited	22	(3)
Notes	25	(2)
The Romantic Antecedents of Postmodern Culture and Society	27	(24)
Schopenhauer's Neglected Influence upon the Origins of the Social Sciences	29	(7)
Nietzsche's Will to Power versus Schopenhauer's Compassion	36	(3)
Rereading Durkheim in the Cultural Context of Schopenhauer and Durkheim	39	(6)
Baudrillard versus Durkheim on Seduction	45	(4)
Notes	49	(2)
The Social World as Will and Idea	51	(18)
The Philosophical Vocabulary Shared by Schopenhauer and Durkheim	53	(2)
Conceptualizing the Sick Society	55	(4)
Perception and Thought in Durkheim's Sociology	59	(3)
The Unity of Knowledge	62	(4)
Implications	66	(1)
Notes	67	(2)
Postmodern Language as a Social Fact	69	(22)
Recovering the German Romantic Context of the Birth of Linguistics	71	(2)
Language as a Social Fact	73	(5)
What Is a Social Fact?	78	(5)
Left vs. Right as Collective Representations	83	(3)
Implications	86	(2)
Notes	88	(3)
Postmodernism and Religion	91	(22)
Taking Bachofen Seriously	93	(2)
Bellah's Conceptualization of American Civil Religion	95	(2)
Durkheim's Conceptualization of Religion as a Feminine, Sacred Complex	97	(4)
Is There a Feminine Voice in American Postmodern Civil Religion?	101	(2)
The Social Psychology of Erich Fromm	103	(3)
Paradox and Pessimism	106	(3)
Implications	109	(1)
Notes	110	(3)
Suicide and the Will to Life	113	(26)
Suicide and Human Morale as Cultural Phenomena	118	(1)
Suicide and Human Suffering	119	(2)
Postmodern Neurasthenia	121	(4)
Primitive Elements in Postmodern Culture	125	(5)
Morale in Primitive vs. Modern Societies	130	(5)
Conclusions	135	(2)
Notes	137	(2)
Conclusions	139	(22)
Durkheim and Veblen on Christian Morals and Modernity	148	(4)
Postmodernism and the Epistemological Imagination Required by Sociology	152	(3)
Overcoming Barbarism	155	(4)
Notes	159	(2)
References	161	(12)
Additional Readings	173	(10)
Author Index	183	(2)
Subject Index	185