The Development of Durkheim's Social Realism

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.

"This book provides a rich, interesting, and well-documented context for appreciating the importance that Durkeim placed on the moral and political aspects of his theoretical arguments...The research has been carefully done and should be of great interest for scholars with an interest, not only in Durkheim, but the development of sociological theory generally." Ideology and Cultural Production, Anne W. Rawls, Wayne State University

"Jones's thoughtful historical analysis of Durkheim's ideas should provide reading pleasure not simply for historians, sociologists, and social theorists who focus their scholarly attention on Durkheim's work but, in addition, for intellectual historians, sociologists of knowledge, and historians and philosophers of science and social science more generally...Jones's book will remain an invaluable resource for understanding the hopes and fears that Durkheim brought to his own work and the conventions of the discipline that he helped to found as an intellectual, moral, and political response to the changing world around him." Journal of Modern History

"This book...is an important contribution to the better understanding of Emile Durkheim's sociology and social philosophy... His careful analysis of Durkheim's thought in its own intellectual milieu is a very useful contribution everyone interested in the evolution of modern social science and social philosophy will appreciate." James S. Benton, Comparative Studies in Society and History