Late Nineteenth Century Lamarckism and French Sociology

Bibliographic Data

ID7526666
AuthorsSnait B Gissi (corresponding author), Snait B Gissis (Tel Aviv University, corresponding author), Snait Gissis
Year2002
Volume10
Issue1
Pages69-122
Publication date2002-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePerspectives on Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1063-6145 • E-ISSN: 1530-9274
PublisherThe MIT Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1162/106361402762674807
OpenAlexW2074395157
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited48

The transfer of modes of thought, concepts, models, and metaphors from Darwinian and Lamarckian evolutionary biology played a significant role in the mergence, constitution, and legitimization of sociology as an autonomous discipline in France at the end of the nineteenth century. More specifically, the Durkheimian group then came to be recognized as “French sociology.” In the present paper, I analyze a facet of the struggle among various groups for this coveted status and demonstrate that the initial adherence to and subsequent abandonment of “the biological” played an important, but complex, role in the outcome of that struggle. Furthermore, the choice of biological model, whether Darwinian or Lamarckian, had repercussions on one's position in that cultural field. The outcome of the “battle” between Rene Worms' group that supported and contributed to the Revue Internationale de Sociologie (RIS) on the one hand, and Emile Durkheim's group and those committed to the L'Annee Sociologique (AS) on the other

Epistemology · Sociology · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · Historical and Scientific Studies · Philosophical and Theoretical Analysis · Philosophy

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