French Literature Reviews - 2026
W. Stoczkowski, La science sociale comme vision du monde. Émile Durkheim et le mirage du salut
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Wiktor Stoczkowski
La science sociale comme vision du monde. Émile Durkheim et le mirage du salut
Gallimard
ISBN : 9782070128457
640 p.
26,00 €
OVERVIEW
This book offers an unconventional perspective on social science.
Since its emergence in the 19th century, social science has harbored a dual ambition: to build an objective understanding of society, and to apply this knowledge to remedy society's flaws. Often considered complementary, these two aspirations sometimes prove difficult to reconcile. When the urgency to reshape society overrides the desire to understand it, academic theories transform into grand worldviews, risking a break between established facts and explanatory conjectures.
To see this, one only needs to dissect the lesser-known mechanisms of the most powerful synthesis ever formed at the dawn of social science—one that is still claimed as foundational today: the work of Émile
Durkheim. When confronted with the data available at the time and placed back into the context of the grand debates that then captivated minds, Durkheim's work reveals its primary driving force: the promise of a secular salvation achieved solely through the resources of reason. The nascent social science borrowed its two guiding ideas from Christianity, via philosophy: the conviction that the human world is afflicted by an evil that disrupts the legitimate order of things, and the hope that this evil might one day be eradicated.
What are the trade-offs of this redemptive aspiration?
*
This volume contributes to the broader intellectual history of the human sciences during the nineteenth century, a period when emerging academic disciplines frequently engaged with enduring philosophical and theological questions. By focusing on the intersection between empirical research and overarching worldviews, the study examines how foundational thinkers navigated the tension between descriptive analysis and normative aspirations for society. Such investigations connect the history of sociology with the wider evolution of European thought regarding reason, progress, and the amelioration of collective life.
The analysis closely follows the intellectual trajectory of La science sociale comme vision du monde as presented through the historical and conceptual mechanisms detailed in the text. Readers interested in the history of sociological theory and nineteenth-century intellectual history may find it relevant to their understanding of how foundational scientific frameworks incorporated inherited cultural motifs. The discussion centers on the ways in which academic theories sought to address perceived social disorders through systematic inquiry and rational explanation.
You can read an article about this book on en-attendant-nadeau.fr...