This book offers a major reassessment of the work of Emile Durkheim in thecontext of a French philosophical tradition that had seriously misinterpretedKant by i... » 

This book offers a major reassessment of the work of Emile Durkheim in thecontext of a French philosophical tradition that had seriously misinterpretedKant by interpreting his theory of the categories as psychological faculties.Durkheims sociological theory of the categories as revealed by WarrenSchmaus is an attempt to provide an alternative way of understanding Kant. ForDurkheim the categories are necessary conditions for human society. Theconcepts of causality space and time underpin the moral rules and obligationsthat make society possible. A particularly original feature of this book is itstranscendence of the distinction between intellectual and social history byplacing Durkheims work in the context of the French educational establishmentof the Third Republic. It does this by subjecting student notes and philosophytextbooks to the same sort of critical analysis typically applied only to theclassics of philosophy. «