The Problem of Disorder

This chapter will not attempt to summarize arguments that have been presented so far in the book. It is hoped that the conclusions of each particular line of argument have been stated clearly enough to make this task unnecessary. What might be useful, however, is a brief review of the basic thesis of the Durkheimian ‘problem of disorder’. This problem, which is also traceable in the work of the neo-Durkheimian school of normative functionalism, has two main sources. The first is to be found in the analytically residual nature of those aspects of society which Durkheim often refers to under the general rubric of the ‘utilitarian’.

Argument (complex analysis) · Epistemology · Functionalism (philosophy of mind) · Normative · Rubric · Sociology · Critical Realism in Sociology · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Representations and Identity