This article is concerned with Durkheimian sociology’s problematization of war. Such concern is rooted in an appraisal of contemporary social scientific approaches to war and the military, particularly in the recognition that sociology has largely left these issues unexplored. I first attempt to situate the Durkheimian legacy in the current social scientific landscape of war and military studies, especially with regard to research conducted in France and the United States. I then argue, on the basis of Durkheim’s late writings, that he was not altogether oblivious to questions pertaining to the military and war; and that the way in which he addressed these issues was not just, as is often claimed, in a jingoistic mode. This article instead points towards the original analyses that Durkheim provided on the basis of concepts he had developed as early as in the Division of Labour and the centrality of the notion of ‘solidarity’ in his approach.
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Durkheim and Approaches to the Study of War
Irène Eulriet
In Durkheimian Studies
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2010
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 59–76 (18 total)
'The Dualism of Human Nature' Translators' Note
Irène Eulriet and William Watts Miller
‘The Dualism of Human Nature’ was made available some time ago in English, and this undoubtedly helped to stimulate the mass of commentary that has grown around the essay and made it well-known. But it is time to replace the old translation, since it is so inadequate and fault-ridden. For example, it involves a systematic impulse to change a Durkheimian collective noun such as our will into English individualized plurals, such as ‘our wills’. Or it often cuts things out. Thus it eliminates Durkheim’s key talk of creative effervescence, which merely becomes ‘creativity’. An opposite tendency is to add things in.
Contributors
Irène Eulriet, W. D. Halls, Mike Hawkins, Jean-Louis Fabiani, Jean de Lannoy, Giovanni Paoletti, W. S. F. Pickering, Romain Pudal, Ilkka Pyysiäinen, Alexander T. Riley, Massimo Rosati, and W. Watts Miller
Notes on contributors