Introduction: From Wilson to DurkheimAuthor(s): Edward A. TiryakianSource: Social Forces, Vol. 59, No. 4, Special Issue (Jun., 1981), pp. 900-901Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2577972 .

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Introduction: From Wilson to Durkheim

EDWARD A. TIRYAKIAN, Duke University

It is a distinct pleasure as well as a challenge to edit this special issue, which was commissioned by the departmental colleagues of Everett K. Wilson. As Professor Lenski has noted, Everett Wilson is a long-time admirer of Emile Durkheim, many of whose works he has translated, including Moral Education, an important work of Durkheim's that links the sociologist, the moralist, and the educator. Since, like Durkheim, Ev Wil- son has been the vigorous editor of a research-oriented sociology journal, agreeing to edit a special issue on Durkheim involved the challenge of finding an appropriate focus. There has been in recent years an outpouring of woiks on Durkheim. Most of these are historical treatments of Durk- heim, his works and his social setting; since Harry Alpert blazed the trail of Durkheimian studies in the 1930s, we have gone far in our knowledge of the man, his works, and his associates.

But sociology cannot be confounded with history, not even with the history of sociology. Durkheim wanted sociology to be a dynamic dis- cipline, and for Durkheim to be featured in this special issue, it could only be appropriate for articles to testify to the relevance of Durkheim for the present and following generations of social scientists. The spirit of Durk- heim and of his group should be not only an inspiration but also a set of stimuli for contemporary sociology: Durkheim is the crystallizer of the central tradition of the discipline, and a tradition is that which sustains and revitalizes periodically the historical process.

Since Social Forces has served as a forum for not only the interplay between theory and research but also for contrasting theoretical perspec- tives and methodologies, it seemed appropriate to have at least some es- says in this issue that would juxtapose Durkheim with other contrasting orientations that are also important stances today. The spirit of Marx, of Weber, and of Husserl are continuing to provide us with major orienta- tions, and it is appropriate that the first three essays bring together the so- ciological orientation that stems from each to an encounter with Durkheim. The endeavor underlying these essays by Tom Bottomore, Jeffrey Prager, and Herman Coenen is to see whether new directions for theory and re- search may stem from comparing Durkheim with figures and approaches that seem from a distance in marked contrast. 0 1981 The University of North Carolina Press. 0037-7732/81/040900-01$00.20

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Introduction 1 901

It is also the case that Durkheim was heir to the Comtean vision of sociology integrating and fulfilling scientific knowledge, the positivistic ideal of the unity of science. This meant that the task or mission of soci- ology as a discipline was necessarily to relate to other disciplines studying humanity in the course of the historical process. Two essays in this issue examine this aspect of the Durkheimian legacy. In the light of recent dis- cussions, Ritzer and Bell critically examine whether Durkheim developed an integrative paradigm of social reality. This is a central question in recent discussions in the philosophy of science concerning the function of para- digms and whether the social sciences have reached a paradigmatic state of development. Since Durkheim made extensive use of ethnographic, com- parative data, and since ethnology or comparative social anthropology had what might be called a "special relationship" with Durkheim and L'An- nee Sociologique, the essay of James Peacock assessing the Durkheimian presence in contemporary social anthropology is highly appropriate.

The thread of Ariadne which runs through Durkheim's exploration of the labyrinth of modern social existence is the dialectical interplay be- tween intersubjective morality and social organization. This interplay is manifest in various dichotomies which recur in Durkheim's writings: social health/social pathology, social order/anomie, conformity/deviance. These antinomies, to borrow from Kant, underlie the basic relationship of indiv- idual to society, the heart of the human condition for Durkheim. Two essays in this issue deal with the contemporary relevance of Durkheim in matters of basic concerns: T. Anthony Jones takes a fresh look at Durk- heim's treatment of deviance and what it offers sociology today, while I consider the theme of sexual anomie in Durkheim and how this may be heuristic for sensitizing sociology to fundamental transformations going on today in the sexual basis of the social order.

This special issue of Social Forces reflects a reciprocal gift-exchange, which vindicates the brilliant analysis of The Gift by Durkheim's favorite nephew, Marcel Mauss. For the issue is, in a very real sense, the gift of so- ciological colleagues to Everett K. Wilson in recognition of the esteem they hold for him, and of the contributors to this issue to him for the high stan- dards of scholarship he has imparted as editor of Social Forces. In the spirit of gift-exchange, Everett K. Wilson offers to the spirit of Durkheim a previ- ously unpublished translation of an important essay of Durkheim that will be useful for us in judging how sociology today looks in the light of Durk- heim's perspective. The last word in an issue having as its theme "Durk- heim Lives!" can only belong to the spirit of Durkheim. We hope this issue will manifest that this spirit has had and will continue to have a long life!

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