In this article, we propose a brief reconstruction of Talcott Parsons' writings − from his first major book, The Structure of Social Action, to his later writing on the 1960s and 1970s − in order to clarify his main contributions to a sociological discussion of morality. In so doing, we hope to place Talcott Parsons as one of the forerunners of the sociology of morality conceived as an emerging area of research in the social sciences. Throughout this reconstruction, we also try to situate Parsons in terms of his intellectual lineage pointing out that his formulations reveal important affinities with the theoretical perspective of morality that began with Émile Durkheim. Based on these assumptions, we aim to show, albeit on a preliminary basis, how this dialogue contributes to a more precise delineation of a research program in the field.
The aim of this text is to analyze some aspects of the theory of knowledge and the issue of categories of thought as formulated by two great intellectual traditions: the kantian philosophy and durkheimian sociology. In the first part of our text, we try to reconstruct some of the arguments presented by Kant in the Critique of Pure Reason. We look back on the two kantian "deductions" of categories and try to show the existence of an internal tension in this argument. In the second part of our text, we try to reconstruct Durkheim's account of categories by dividing it into three main steps: the argument of collective representations, the argument of classifications and, finally, the argument of the categories. In this case, we try to show how that tension inside the kantian argument was developed by Durkheim's in a quite original form. By focusing its argument in the extra-logic character of the kantian categories, Durkheim seemed to open the way to an original approach to human knowledge: the sociology of knowledge.
RESUMOS O presente texto busca debruçar-se sobre a chamada “tradição durkheimiana”, até então associada a um conjunto mais ou menos disperso de desdobramentos intelectuais, a fim de responder à seguinte pergunta: será possível encontrar, por trás dos desenvolvimentos teóricos aparentemente contraditórios de autores como Lévi-Strauss, Parsons, Goffman, e outros pretensos herdeiros do legado durkheimiano, algum tipo de esquema conceitual dotado de possibilidades lógicas de desenvolvimento a tal ponto abertas, que pudéssemos ainda alocá-los no interior de uma herança intelectual dotada de coerência e unidade? Um problema desse tipo remonta, é claro, não apenas à identidade da tradição, mas a uma possível unidade no interior da obra durkheimiana. Nossa hipótese de trabalho é de que a teoria das representações coletivas, tal como formulada pelo sociólogo francês em seus textos tardios, poderia fornecer uma possível resolução para essas questões.
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