351. Sociological thought in Emile Durkheim and George Fitzhugh.
- Author
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Mayes, Sharon S.
- Subjects
SOCIOLOGY ,SOCIAL theory ,CAPITALISM ,FEUDALISM ,SLAVERY - Abstract
This comparative study of the origins of sociological theory in the work of George Fitzhugh, an American slaveholder, and Emile Durkheim, the French father of sociology, indicates that as a world view the science of sociology bears striking similarity to the science of slavery. Several major areas of sociology: social order, morality, division of labour, and education are developed and analysed by Fitzhugh in the mid-nineteenth century as a defence against the evils of capitalism and a programme to restore the natural moral order of slavery. Durkheim's analyses of these areas one half century later are substantively the same as he analyses the ‘pathology’ of modern industrialization and the ‘normalcy’ of nontransitional, stable society. The elevation of Society to the status of a diety is fundamental for both theorists in their defence of moral order. Both sociologists are examples of the development of sociology out of a historical period marked by the chaotic contradictions inherent in the growth of capitalism coexisting with feudalism and slavery around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1980
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