Emphasis on autonomy of texts presupposes that there are perennial concepts. But researchers' expectations may turn history into mythology of ideas; researchers forget that an agent cannot be described as doing something he could not understand as a description, and that thinking may be inconsistent. They will never uncover voluntary oblique strategies and by treating ideas as units will confuse sentences with statements. On the other hand, a contextual approach to the meaning of texts dismisses ideas as unimportant effects. Neither (...) method shows how what was said was meant is crucial for understanding. There are no perennial problems; philosophers of different times do not speak directly to us. But history of ideas helps us recognize the contingency of many of our beliefs. (shrink)

This study offers a new interpretation of the emergence of scientific psychology and sociology in late-nineteenth-century France. Focusing on their relationship with the philosophy taught in the French education system, the author shows the profound impact on the individuals most responsible for the introduction of the human sciences into the French university - particularly Theodule Ribot, Alfred Espinas, Pierre Janet, and Emile Durkheim. Philosophers helped shape the human sciences by their criticisms of conceptual and methodological problems in the emerging disciplines. (...) The human sciences that emerged were less reductionist and more methodologically sound than they would have been without the vigorous debate with philosophy. This influence is the eclectic legacy of academic philosophy to the human sciences in France. (shrink)

In late nineteenth-century France, sociology was striving to separate itself from philosophy, and yet was intellectually, institutionally, and socially dependent upon this connection. This dissertation focuses on Durkheim's debates with members of the Revue de metaphysique et de morale that occurred roughly between 1894 and 1900. Some of Durkheim's critics---Bougle, Lapie, Parodi, and Simiand---would shortly join Durkheim in the enterprise of founding a sociological journal, the Annee sociologique. ;The main thesis of this study is that among the divergent trends within (...) French academic philosophy, the particular version of neo-Kantian rationalism espoused by the core members of the RMM played a crucial role in the formation of Durkheim's emergent sociology. This influence is traced by detailing the relationships among the members of two journals: the Annee sociologique and the RMM. ;The first part of the dissertation analyzes the differences between the RMM's philosophical position and the other available positions in French philosophy. ;The second part examines Durkheim's earlier publications in order to present his position at the time the criticisms began. It then follows the changes in Durkheim's theories, as he responded to his critics and worked to establish his project within the existing intellectual fields and institutional structures. Durkheim was convinced that if science is to advance, the work must be conducted as a team. Therefore, the establishment of the Annee depended upon Durkheim's ability to persuade his RMM collaborators---a group of men who were critical of positivism and its excesses of faith in science---of the possibility of founding sociology on the model of the natural sciences. The success of this effort of persuasion created a working intellectual consensus within the Annee. Later, during the Dreyfus affair, Durkheim and the RMM members came to realize that they shared certain political commitments and moral goals, despite the intellectual differences that remained. This realization resulted in the formation of a ground of personal sympathies, which eventually allowed Durkheim's sociology to benefit from the RMM's institutional legitimacy. Taken together, all these factors were crucial to the eventual dominance of Durkheim's sociology over that of his competitors. (shrink)

Drawing on a historicist perspective, this book explores the development of Durkheim's social realism and argues that it was less a sociological method than a way of speaking and thinking about social phenomena. Using for the first time the newly-discovered lecture notes from Durkheim's philosophy class of 1883-4, Professor Jones explores the significance of German social science in Durkheim's thought. The Development of Durkheim's Social Realism will be of immense value to graduate students and scholars in sociology, social theory, social (...) and political philosophy and the history of ideas. (shrink)