Durkheim - Professional Ethics and Civic Morals

one cannot help realizing that had the social sciences paid more attention to Durkheim half a century or so ago, a good many false steps might have been saved and we might be much further along than we are today. Even if his point of view in its entirety may not be acceptable, Durkheim had insights well ahead of his age.

Annual Review of Anthropology

mile Durkheim is one of the founding fathers of sociology and Professional Ethics and Civic Morals is one of his most neglected yet insightful works. Durkheims view that the instability of industrial society was connected to the decline of religion and his characterization of the state as the ultimate moral force in society reveal his lifelong engagement with the relationship between the individual and society.

In Professional Ethics and Civic Morals Durkheim poses a major question: given the negative social consequences of unfettered markets, which caused what he termed anomie, how is the state to reconcile morality with the market? Durkheim argues that the answer is to be found in the evolution of a civil religion, in the form of professional codes and civic values, which would counteract the effects of individualism, just as guilds had regulated medieval economic life.

Arguing that the state has a vital role to play in moral life and that morals are at bottom social facts a controversial position which drew considerable criticism Durkheim also argues that the state has a duty to protect the rights of the individual, via a form of cosmopolitan patriotism.

Durkheim also articulates a highly original and critical interpretation of the rules around property and inheritance a perspective which resonates with debates about inequality and the redistribution of wealth today.

Included in this Routledge Classics edition is a new introduction by Bryan S. Turner, placing Durkheim in contemporary context and outlining the key tenets of Professional Ethics and Civic Morals.

mile Durkheim (18581917) was one of the founders of sociology and social anthropology. He also believed that education was vitally important in sustaining a moral life and was deeply involved in the campaign for educational reform in France.

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First published in Routledge Classics 2019

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Translated by Cornelia Brookfield
Translation Routledge 1957
Introduction to Routledge Classics Edition 2019 Bryan S. Turner

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First published by Routledge 1957

Second edition published by Routledge 1992

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Durkheim, mile, 1858-1917, author.

Title: Professional ethics and civic morals / mile Durkheim ; translated by Cornelia Brookfield ; with a new introduction by Bryan S. Turner.

Other titles: Leons de sociologie. English

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | Series: Routledge classics | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018024441| ISBN 9781138601888 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138601895 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780429452901 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Social ethics. | Professional ethics. | Civics--Moral and ethical aspects. | Sociological jurisprudence--Moral and ethical aspects.

Classification: LCC HM665 .D8713 2019 | DDC 303.3/72--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018024441

ISBN: 978-1-138-60188-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-60189-5 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-45290-1 (ebk)