Università Roma Tre

Émile Durkheim: Understanding a classic to interpret the present

This course aims to present the complexity and theoretical prominence of one of the founders of sociological thought: Émile Durkheim. Each week we will raise a main question that will allow us to read and comment on parts of his work, reconstructing its historical and conceptual development. To do so we will follow a threefold scan dedicated: to the method and object of sociological knowledge; to the understanding of legal and political institutions; and to the historical and reflective consideration of forms of collective idealization. Through the study of Durkheim's work we intend to remove this author from the inevitable simplifications to which he has often been destined in his manualistic reductions, partly because of the dominance of the Weberian paradigm in a widespread part of Italian sociological culture. Our aim will be not only to understand the thought of a classic by addressing the entirety of his reflection but, equally, to detect its interest in interpreting the present. In this regard, the course intends to compend the weekly reading of anthological texts from Durkheim's work with some selections of essays from secondary literature. With the exception of a few texts, almost the entirety of the bibliographic material-both primary and secondary literature-will be uploaded to the course website and updated throughout the semester.

PART I - KNOWLEDGE
1. What is modernity? Individual and society
2. What are the aspirations and risks of modern societies? Society and critique
3. In what does the sociological method consist? Social facts and collective representations
4. What are the aspirations and risks of modern individuals? Individual and critique

PART II - INSTITUTIONS
5. Does modernity make us more free? Collective morality and autonomy
6. What is the state? Intermediate bodies and individualism
7. Local justice or universal justice? Cosmopolitanism and contract
8. Does modernity make us more equal? Temporal power and sociology

PART III - IDEALS
9. Does modernity make us more reflective? Spiritual power and sociology
10. How to understand social change? Authority and revolution
11. Is our thinking social? Beliefs and categories
12. What is the relationship between science and religion? Rituals and knowledge

All the primary texts can be easily found in french and/or in english

Émile Durkheim: Understanding a classic to interpret the present

This course aims to present the complexity and theoretical prominence of one of the founders of sociological thought: Émile Durkheim. Each week we will raise a main question that will allow us to read and comment on parts of his work, reconstructing its historical and conceptual development. To do so we will follow a threefold scan dedicated: to the method and object of sociological knowledge; to the understanding of legal and political institutions; and to the historical and reflective consideration of forms of collective idealization. Through the study of Durkheim's work we intend to remove this author from the inevitable simplifications to which he has often been destined in his manualistic reductions, partly because of the dominance of the Weberian paradigm in a widespread part of Italian sociological culture. Our aim will be not only to understand the thought of a classic by addressing the entirety of his reflection but, equally, to detect its interest in interpreting the present. In this regard, the course intends to compend the weekly reading of anthological texts from Durkheim's work with some selections of essays from secondary literature. With the exception of a few texts, almost the entirety of the bibliographic material-both primary and secondary literature-will be uploaded to the course website and updated throughout the semester.

PART I - KNOWLEDGE
1. What is modernity? Individual and society
2. What are the aspirations and risks of modern societies? Society and critique
3. In what does the sociological method consist? Social facts and collective representations
4. What are the aspirations and risks of modern individuals? Individual and critique

PART II - INSTITUTIONS
5. Does modernity make us more free? Collective morality and autonomy
6. What is the state? Intermediate bodies and individualism
7. Local justice or universal justice? Cosmopolitanism and contract
8. Does modernity make us more equal? Temporal power and sociology

PART III - IDEALS
9. Does modernity make us more reflective? Spiritual power and sociology
10. How to understand social change? Authority and revolution
11. Is our thinking social? Beliefs and categories
12. What is the relationship between science and religion? Rituals and knowledge

All the primary texts can be easily found in french and/or in english