Durkheim and Husserl

a comparison of the spirit of positivism and the spirit of phenomenology

Edward A. Tiryakian

pp. 20-43

in: Joseph Bien (ed), Phenomenology and the social science, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

Some years ago, I began to consider the possibility of a meaningful rapprochement between sociology and philosophy by examining similarities and differences in the perspectives of Durkheim's sociologism and that of existential thought concerning the basic relation of the individual and society.¹ The intention of this endeavor was to renew the ties between two disciplines which I feel are complementary and in need of one another. Since this initial venture, I have become increasingly aware of a third voice in the dialogue, and this tertius gaudens is that of phenomenology.² As the title of this paper indicates, it is the relation between sociology and the latter which is the horizon of the present essay.

Cited authors

Husserl Edmund

Durkheim Emile