Between facts and wills: Tönnies, Durkheim, and the sociological critique of modern obligation. (November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Marcucci, Nicola
• Other Names: Fitzi Gregor guest-editor.; Marcucci Nicola guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of classical sociology. Volume 17:Number 4(2017)
• Page Start: 276
• Page End: 292
• Publication Date: 2017-11
• Subjects: Social facts -- social will -- obligation -- natural law -- State; Sociology -- History -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Sociology -- History -- 19th century -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1468795X17735993
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-795X

Abstract

This article explores the relation between Durkheim and Tönnies' sociological thinking. Instead of focusing on their divergences, it shows how the content of their mutual criticisms, before being naturalized in national sociological traditions, reveals a shared epistemological aim: to rethink modern moral and political obligation via sociological theory. From this perspective, the opposition between Durkheim's social fact and Tönnies' social will reveals how classical sociological theory has been engaged in a general critisicm of modern natural law in order to furnish a different understanding of modern poltical concepts, in particular of the notion of state.