On Halbwachs's Sociology of Knowledge Program
The Two Hidden Categories of ‘La doctrine d'Émile Durkheim’
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Abstract
‘La doctrine d'Émile Durkheim’, sheds light on the intellectual connection between Durkheim and Halbwachs. Halbwachs agrees with Durkheim that knowledge consists of a set of classifications whose origin is social, and that evolution moves from totemic classifications to spatial classifications and contemporary conceptual thinking, but without much knowledge of the passage from the second to the third stage of this evolution. Halbwachs sketches, as a complement, an element of response to fill this void, and in doing so, announces his future work. To the categories of thought studied by Durkheim, he adds those of change and of the individual, which he will use in his later works to explain the movement of civilization. In doing so, he proves his involvement in developing the durkheimian program onsociology of knowledge.
Contributor Notes
Jean-Christophe Marcel is Professor of Sociology at the University of Burgundy. He is a member of the editorial board of L'Année Sociologique. His main topics of research relate to the history of French and American sociology (1920–1960), and especially the history of Durkheimian sociology. He has published in particular: Le durkheimisme dans l'entre-deux guerres (Paris: Puf, 2001) and Reconstruire la sociologie avec les Américains (1945–1959)? (Dijon: EUD, 2017). Email: jean-christophe.marcel@u-bourgogne.fr