Between facts and wills: Tönnies, Durkheim, and the sociological critique of modern obligation

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.

Community, society, and property: REDD+ and indigenous groups in Mato Grosso (Brazil)

“…They help to dis nguish diff erent stylized categories that describe the interplay between func onally interrelated social mechanisms (HEBERLE, 1937, p. 15). By implica on, the behaviour of social groups may simultaneously follow the community and the society mode of interac ons in diff erent contexts (CAHNMAN, 1968;MARCUCCI, 2017). In the same vein, it would be a misunderstanding to interpret Tönnies' dis nc on as a temporal sequence.…”

Juridische Soziologien

“…Denn wenn es "der Inhalt eines die Verhältnisse von Willenssphären zueinander regelnden gemeinsamen Willens" sei, dann sei es "daher soziale Tatsache im Unterschiede von politischen und vor diesen Tatsachen" (ebd., H.i.O.). (Marcucci 2017). Man kann darin m.E.…”