Durkheim Émile. On Morality and Society: Selected Writings

Edited and with an introduction by R.N. Bellah. — Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. — 244 p. — (The Heritage of Sociology).There is an anecdote from Georges Davy about an occasion when Davy and Marcel Mauss, Durkheim's nephew and disciple, had, on a warm summer day, left off work for a few minutes to have a beer in a sidewalk cafe. Catching a glimpse of his uncle coming out of the Sorbonne courtyard, Mauss said to Davy, "Quick hide me! Here comes my uncle!" and escaped behind one of the orange trees decorating the cafe. After working on this book off and on for five years and exposing myself for long stretches at a time to Durkheim's unrelieved tone of high moral seriousness, I have had moments of sharing the feelings of Marcel Mauss on that occasion. But I have also come to admire, more than ever before, not only the complexity of Durkheim's mind, but the definiteness with which he knew who he was and what he believed. We are, most of us in American social science, more in his debt than we imagine.This volume includes five articles newly translated and published here for the first time (chapters 1–5). I wish to record my gratitude to Mark Traugott for making these translations and for assistance at every stage with the work for this book. His suggestions and corrections have immeasurably improved it. Albert Craig, Clifford Geertz, Morris Janowitz, Talcott Parsons, David Riesman, Irwin Scheiner, and Edward Shils were also kind enough to read the Introduction and give me the benefit of their reactions to it. — Preface.