Three Faces of God: Society, Religion, and the Categories of Totality in the Philosophy of Emile Durkheim (S U N Y Series in Religion, Culture, and Society)

A fresh interpretation of the work of Emile Durkheim, which argues that in addition to being a pioneer in sociological theory and research, Durkheim was also a major social philosopher concerned with religion, metaphysics, and knowledge.Three Faces of God offers a new interpretation of Emile Durkheim's social philosophy. It challenges the current view of him as primarily a scientific sociologist who identified sociology with the study of collective representations. Nielsen argues that Durkheim was a sociological monist who developed a concept of social substance and a theory of society, religion and the categories of understanding strikingly similar to Spinoza's philosophy. The book provides a comprehensive examination of Durkheim's major and minor writings, especially his theory of religion and the categories, and compares his work with Aristotle, Bacon, Kant, and Renouvier. The author places Durkheim's thought in the context of an encounter between traditional religious ideals, especially Judaism, and modernizing scientific and philosophical currents.Donald A. Nielsen is Associate Professor of Sociology at State University of New York College at Oneonta. Three Faces of God......Page 2 Contents......Page 7 Preface......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 13 1 Durkheim's Project: A Claim......Page 15 Durkheim's Social Philosophy and the Revelation of 1895......Page 24 The Durkheimian Program of Theory and Research......Page 26 3 Durkheim's Concept of Totality and the Philosophical Tradition: Selected Predecessors......Page 32 Durkheim and Aristotle......Page 33 Durkheim and Bacon......Page 42 Durkheim and Spinoza......Page 45 Durkheim, Kant, and Renouvier......Page 50 4 Durkheim's Early Writings and the Dissertation on Montesquieu......Page 59 5 The First Approach to Totality: Wholes, Parts and the Transformation of Social Substance in The D.........Page 72 Social Facts and the Whole/Part Problem in The Rules of Sociological Method......Page 85 Religion, Totality, and Society in Durkheim's Lectures on Socialism......Page 92 Totality and Its Modes in Suicide......Page 99 The Whole in Durkheim's Lectures on State, Society, and Professional Ethics......Page 113 Collective Representations, Religion and the Individual......Page 117 First Essays on Totemism, Kinship, and Primitive Society......Page 130 Durkheim and Rousseau......Page 135 Moral Education......Page 140 The Evolution of Educational Thought......Page 145 Fragments of the Problem of Totality in Durkheim's Essays II: 1905–1912......Page 150 8 The Problem of Totality in the Early Durkheim School: The Work of Durkheim, Mauss, Hubert, Hertz,.........Page 159 Durkheim and Mauss on Primitive Classification......Page 160 Mauss on Social Morphology and Eskimo Society......Page 167 Hubert and Mauss on Mentalities, Magic, and Society......Page 169 Hubert on the Collective Representation of Time......Page 174 Reason and Society: The Hubert and Mauss Preface to the Mélanges d'Histoire des Religions......Page 179 Robert Hertz on Religious Polarity......Page 185 Bouglé on the Hindu Caste System......Page 188 9 The Second Approach to Totality: Society, Religion, and the Categories in The Elementary Forms of.........Page 191 Nature and Society......Page 193 Totality and Society......Page 196 The Categories, Totality, and Society......Page 197 Society, Deity, Totality......Page 212 The Lectures on Pragmatism......Page 222 The Dualism of Human Nature......Page 229 11 Sociological Monism and the Encounter between Tradition and Modernity......Page 236 Durkheim's Sociological Monism: A Systematic Reconstruction......Page 237 Sociological Monism in Civilizational Perspective: Toward the Historical Location of Durkheim's Tho.........Page 246 Bibliography......Page 254 C......Page 269 D......Page 270 G......Page 271 L......Page 272 P......Page 273 S......Page 274 Y......Page 276 Durkheim's Project : A Claim -- Durkheim's Concept Of Totality And The Philosophical Tradition : Selected Predecessors -- Durkheim's Early Writing And The Dissertation On Montesquieu -- The First Approach To Totality : Wholes, Parts, And The Transformation Of Social Substance In The Division Of Labor In Society -- The Problem Of Totality In Durkheim's Transitional Period -- Between Revelation And Realization : The Developing Problem Of Totality In Durkheim From 1898-1912 -- The Problem Of Totality In The Early Durkheim School : The Work Of Durkheim, Mauss, Hubert, Hertz, And Bouglé -- The Second Approach To Totality : Society, Religion, And The Categories In The Elementary Forms Of Religious Life -- The Problem Of Totality In Durkheim's Last Writings -- Sociological Monism And The Encounter Between Tradition And Modernity. Donald A. Nielsen. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 245-259) And Index. Offering a new interpretation of Durkheim's social philosophy, Nielsen (sociology, State U. of New York-Oneonta) challenges the prevailing view of him as a scientific sociologist who identified sociology primarily with the study of collective representations, and argues that he developed a theory of society, religion, and the categories of knowing akin to Spinoza's monist philosophy. From a close textual reading of Durkheim's major and minor writings in English and the original French (quotes are bilingual), his thought is reconstructed in the context of the encounter between traditional religious ideals (particularly Judaism's) and modern science and philosophy; comparisons are made between his work and that of Aristotle, Bacon, Kant, and Renouvier. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR