Rawls2001

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Rawls2001
BibType ARTICLE
Key Rawls2001
Author(s) Anne Warfield Rawls
Title Durkheim's treatment of practice: concrete practice vs representations as the foundation of reason
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Basic Resources, Durkheim, Knowledge, Reason, Representation
Publisher
Year 2001
Language English
City
Month
Journal Journal of Classical Sociology
Volume 1
Number 1
Pages 33–68
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1468795X0100100102
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

It is generally thought that Durkheim based his theory of knowledge on a theory of representations. However, in The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915 [1912]) he places great emphasis on concrete and witnessable aspects of practice such as sounds and movements and downplays the importance of beliefs and representations. He argues that ritual sounds and movements, when collectively enacted, can create sentiments that give rise to the essential concepts that he refers to as the categories of the understanding. Representations are, in his view, secondary phenomena that arise only after participation in social practices. This article demonstrates through an analysis of Durkheim's text that he carefully referred to ritual practices in concrete and not representational terms at strategic points in the argument. Furthermore, it is argued that the collective experience of concrete sounds and movements was, on Durkheim's view, a prerequisite for the subsequent development of representations.

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