Epistemology and Practice
Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:4th Jun '09
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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- Hardback£105.00(9780521651455)
Argues Durkheim was attempting to establish a unique epistemological basis for the study of sociology.
In this original and controversial book Professor Rawls argues that Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life has been consistently misunderstood. It is his crowning achievement and an attempt to establish a unique epistemological basis for the study of sociology and moral relations.In this original and controversial book Professor Rawls argues that Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life is the crowning achievement of his sociological endeavour and that since its publication in English in 1915 it has been consistently misunderstood. Rather than a work on primitive religion or the sociology of knowledge, Rawls asserts that it is an attempt by Durkheim to establish a unique epistemological basis for the study of sociology and moral relations. By privileging social practice over beliefs and ideas, it avoids the dilemmas inherent in philosophical approaches to knowledge and morality that are based on individualism and the tendency to privilege beliefs and ideas over practices, both tendencies that dominate western thought. Based on detailed textual analysis of the primary text, this book will be an important and original contribution to contemporary debates on social theory and philosophy.
ISBN: 9780521112369
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 21mm
Weight: 550g
372 pages