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Visions of the Social
Society as a Political Project in France, 1750-1950
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An essentially contested notion, society is viewed by some as the most important level of human reality, while others deny its existence outright. Taking the example of France between the Enlightenment and the Second World War, this book recounts the debates among thinkers and scholars on the nature of the social. By way of an original analysis of the work of many key figures in the history of French thought, the author convincingly demonstrates the strength of the connection between social theories and political projects. He pays particular attention to conceptual and terminological developments, thereby shedding a new light on the history of some core concepts of the human sciences, such as "society", "culture", and "civilisation".
Jean Terrier, Ph.D. in Social and Political Science, European University Institute (2004), is lecturer at the University of Münster. He works on the history of social and political thought and on the history of concepts, with a focus on turn-of-the-century France.
"Jean Terrierâs new book offers [â¦] a really interesting example of a strong intellectual history." â James Livesey, in: H-France Review 12/97 (July 2012), pp. 1-2
"[a] remarkably interesting work of conceptual history ... the chapter on Durkheim ... is, in my view, a tour de force. ... Terrierâs last chapter, on Marcel Mauss, is also highly interesting and innovative." â Steven Lukes, New York University, in: European Journal of Sociology 52/3, 553-555
"Terrierâs book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the deep and ramified history of the concepts of society and social [...]" â Ãlvaro Santana Acuña, Harvard University, in: Sociologica 3 (2011) [Online]
"[a] remarkably interesting work of conceptual history ... the chapter on Durkheim ... is, in my view, a tour de force. ... Terrierâs last chapter, on Marcel Mauss, is also highly interesting and innovative." â Steven Lukes, New York University, in: European Journal of Sociology 52/3, 553-555
"Terrierâs book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the deep and ramified history of the concepts of society and social [...]" â Ãlvaro Santana Acuña, Harvard University, in: Sociologica 3 (2011) [Online]
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The collective will. From the political to the social
âBearing the peopleâs personâ: Hobbes on unity through representation
âA moral and collective body of many membersâ: Rousseauâs unitary state
âA unique whole composed of integral partsâ: national unity during the French Revolution
âPolitics is to be wrought by social meansâ: Burke and de Maistre on the pre-eminence of the social
The natural and the social: the notion of social causality
âDetermined by its character and pastâ: Taineâs traditionalist arguments
Between the social and the political: Esmein on national sovereignty
Sociological arguments for the âRights of manâ
A sociology for the Republic: Alfred Fouillée
2. Nations and their adversaries as a theme of social thought
National singularity and the community of nations: Montesquieu, Encyclopédie, Mme de Staël
The political creation of national characters: Rousseau
Increasingly distinct nations in a social age: Michelet
âA spiritual principleâ: the nation according to Renan
A racial theory of national characters: Gustave Le Bon
Social thought and the figure of the enemy
Societies and nations as totalities: Emile Durkheim
3. From âcharacterâ to âcultureâ. Social thought and conceptual change
âNational characterâ: varieties of understanding
âA continuous fermentationâ: Gabriel Tardeâs social ontology
âNo such thing as a collective personalityâ: Max Weberâs nominalist sociology
Exchange and flux: cultural forms according to Franz Boas
Society and âconscience collectiveâ: Durkheim on society and morality
An object for the human sciences: the rise of the culture concept
4. âIn us, but not of usâ. The location of society according to Durkheim
The question of the material substratum
Individual and collective representations
Collective consciousness and the externality of social facts
Religion, collective ideation, and âHomo duplexâ
5. The national and the transnational: Marcel Mauss
Before nations: from hordes to empires
âA sufficiently integrated societyâ: defining the nation
The political understanding of a social form
Excursus on a philological problem
âEverything can be shared between societiesâ: a sociology of international relations
The question of a human civilisation
âAn entity with a thousand dimensionsâ: society and the category of relation
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index of Subjects
Index of Names
Introduction
1. The collective will. From the political to the social
âBearing the peopleâs personâ: Hobbes on unity through representation
âA moral and collective body of many membersâ: Rousseauâs unitary state
âA unique whole composed of integral partsâ: national unity during the French Revolution
âPolitics is to be wrought by social meansâ: Burke and de Maistre on the pre-eminence of the social
The natural and the social: the notion of social causality
âDetermined by its character and pastâ: Taineâs traditionalist arguments
Between the social and the political: Esmein on national sovereignty
Sociological arguments for the âRights of manâ
A sociology for the Republic: Alfred Fouillée
2. Nations and their adversaries as a theme of social thought
National singularity and the community of nations: Montesquieu, Encyclopédie, Mme de Staël
The political creation of national characters: Rousseau
Increasingly distinct nations in a social age: Michelet
âA spiritual principleâ: the nation according to Renan
A racial theory of national characters: Gustave Le Bon
Social thought and the figure of the enemy
Societies and nations as totalities: Emile Durkheim
3. From âcharacterâ to âcultureâ. Social thought and conceptual change
âNational characterâ: varieties of understanding
âA continuous fermentationâ: Gabriel Tardeâs social ontology
âNo such thing as a collective personalityâ: Max Weberâs nominalist sociology
Exchange and flux: cultural forms according to Franz Boas
Society and âconscience collectiveâ: Durkheim on society and morality
An object for the human sciences: the rise of the culture concept
4. âIn us, but not of usâ. The location of society according to Durkheim
The question of the material substratum
Individual and collective representations
Collective consciousness and the externality of social facts
Religion, collective ideation, and âHomo duplexâ
5. The national and the transnational: Marcel Mauss
Before nations: from hordes to empires
âA sufficiently integrated societyâ: defining the nation
The political understanding of a social form
Excursus on a philological problem
âEverything can be shared between societiesâ: a sociology of international relations
The question of a human civilisation
âAn entity with a thousand dimensionsâ: society and the category of relation
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index of Subjects
Index of Names
Students and scholars interested in the history of social and political theory, the history of the human sciences, and the history of concepts, especially in France.