Book contents
- Diagnosing Social Pathology
- Diagnosing Social Pathology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on Citations
- Chapter 1 Can Societies Be Ill?
- Chapter 2 Society as Organism?
- Chapter 3 Marx: Pathologies of Capitalist Society
- Chapter 4 Marx: Labor in Spiritual Life and Social Pathology
- Chapter 5 Plato: Human Society as Organism
- Chapter 6 Rousseau: Human Society as Artificial
- Chapter 7 Durkheim’s Predecessors: Comte and Spencer
- Chapter 8 Durkheim: Functionalism
- Chapter 9 Durkheim: Solidarity, Moral Facts, and Social Pathology
- Chapter 10 Durkheim: A Science of Morality
- Chapter 11 Hegelian Social Ontology I: Objective Spirit
- Chapter 12 Hegelian Social Ontology II: The Living Good
- Chapter 13 Hegelian Social Pathology
- Chapter 14 Conclusion: On Social Ontology
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 7 - Durkheim’s Predecessors: Comte and Spencer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2022
- Diagnosing Social Pathology
- Diagnosing Social Pathology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on Citations
- Chapter 1 Can Societies Be Ill?
- Chapter 2 Society as Organism?
- Chapter 3 Marx: Pathologies of Capitalist Society
- Chapter 4 Marx: Labor in Spiritual Life and Social Pathology
- Chapter 5 Plato: Human Society as Organism
- Chapter 6 Rousseau: Human Society as Artificial
- Chapter 7 Durkheim’s Predecessors: Comte and Spencer
- Chapter 8 Durkheim: Functionalism
- Chapter 9 Durkheim: Solidarity, Moral Facts, and Social Pathology
- Chapter 10 Durkheim: A Science of Morality
- Chapter 11 Hegelian Social Ontology I: Objective Spirit
- Chapter 12 Hegelian Social Ontology II: The Living Good
- Chapter 13 Hegelian Social Pathology
- Chapter 14 Conclusion: On Social Ontology
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 7 treats two philosophers who directly influenced Durkheim: Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer. Looking at their use of the society–organism analogy, their versions of functional explanation and functional analysis, and their conceptions of what a scientific sociology must be like helps one to understand both the content of Durkheim's positions and why he held them. Three types of functional explanation employed by Comte are relevant: two forms of existential functional explanation as well as functional analysis, which makes no claims regarding the existence of what it analyzes but "explains" what it is by specifying the function it serves and showing how its features are suited to accomplishing that purpose without implying anything about how it originated or why it persists. The chapter argues that Comte and Spencer rely too heavily on the society–organism analogy, leading to an overly biologistic understanding of normative critique available to social pathologists.
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- Diagnosing Social PathologyRousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Durkheim, pp. 139 - 155Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022