Durkheim as an Ideologist of French Republicanism

• In Event: 352 - Theory Section Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Durkheim

Abstract

Durkheim was introduced to the sociological canon by Talcott Parsons where he was presented as a precursor of functionalist theory. Later, a more radical Durkheim was discovered. Both viewpoints, however, ignored the manner in which Durkheim’s sociology laid an intellectual foundation for the practical policies carried out by the elite of France’s Third Republic. Durkheim’s call for a ’science of ethics’ fitted in with the Republican desire to both the displace the Catholic Church and undermine the negative critiques of philosophers. His concept of the state led directly to a form of guided democracy that was to be bolstered by ‘scientific’ education. His key category of solidarity gave theoretical expression to the official doctrine of solidarisme that lay at the core of republican strategy for dealing with labour disputes. A failure to situate Durkheim as an ideological exponent of French republicanism was part of a rhetorical device to construct him as timeless exponent of abstract categories in order to render him suitable to enter a canon.
KEYWORDS: Moral education; solidarisme; division of labour; Third Republic;

Author

• Kieran Allen, University College Dublin