Sociology ETDs
Publication Date
1974
Abstract
In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Emile Durkheim attempts to demonstrate the social character of the categories of the understanding--concepts such as space, time, causation, etc. The present study is devoted to clarification of this account of the categories. It is proposed that Durkheim's account of the relation between the categories and society may be understood more clearly by interpreting his categorial formulation as one concerned with the origin of the categories, not in an absolute, but in a relative sense of .. origin." To show that this is the case, the proposition "the categories are social in origin" is subjected to linguistic philosophical analysis. A partial explanation of the interest in absolute origins which one does find in Elementary Forms is provided by indicating the influence upon Durkheim's thought of evolutionism and his views of causation and definition.
Degree Name
Sociology
Level of Degree
Masters
Department Name
Sociology
First Committee Member (Chair)
CharlesWoodhouse
Second Committee Member
Russell Brian Goodman
Third Committee Member
Geroge Huaco
Language
English
Document Type
Thesis
Recommended Citation
Hostetler, Barbara Patricia. "Emile Durkheim And The Categories Of The Understanding." (1974). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/soc_etds/103
