Through an examination of French organicism–one of the models proposed for the nascent science of sociology in the late 19th century–this article argues two main points: that organicism was crucial in the establishment of ‘society’ as a scientific object; and that the specific characteristics of this new object were retained by later sociology long after the organic analogies and evolutionary views that justified them had been explicitly abandoned. Organicism played a significant role in establishing a strong notion of society as a concrete, real entity–a notion that had a lasting impact on sociological theory and became one of the most important ‘categories of thought’ of the 20th century.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barberis, D. S. (2001) The First AnnÈe sociologique and Neo-Kantian Philosophy inFrance. Dissertation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
2.
Barberis, D. S. (2002) ‘Moral Education for the Elite of Democracy: the Classe de Philosophie between Sociology and Philosophy’ , Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences38: 355–369 .
3.
Barnes, H. E. and Becker, H. (1938) Social Thought from Lore to Science. New York: Dover .
4.
BouglÈ, C. (1900) ‘La sociologie biologique et le rÈgime de castes’ [Biological Sociology and the Caste System] , Revue Philosophique51: 337–352 .
5.
Brooks, J. I., III (1998) The Eclectic Legacy: Academic Philosophy and the HumanSciences in Nineteenth-Century France. Newark and London: University of Delaware Press and Associated University Presses .
6.
Butterfield, H. (1931) The Whig Interpretation of History. London: Bell .
7.
Clark, L. L. (1984) Social Darwinism in France. Alabama: University of Alabama Press .
8.
Clark, T. N. (1967) ‘Marginality, Eclecticism, and Innovation: RenÈ Worms and the Revue Internationale de Sociologiefrom 1893 to 1914’, Revue Internationale de Sociologie3: 12–27.
9.
Clark, T. N. (1973) Prophets and Patrons: The French University and the Emergence of the Social Sciences. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
10.
Coker, F. W. (1910) Organismic Theories of the State: Nineteenth Century Interpretations of the State as Organism or Person. New York: AMS Press .
11.
Conry, Y (1974) L’introduction du Darwinisme en France au XIXe siËcle[The Introduction of Darwinism in France in the 19th Century]. Paris: Vrin .
12.
Durkheim, E. (1888) ‘Cours de science sociale: leÁon d’ouverture’ [Social Science Course: Inaugural Lecture] , Revue internationale de l’enseignement15: 23–48 .
13.
Durkheim, E. (1895) Les RËgles de la mÈthode sociologique[The Rules of Sociological Method]. Paris: Alcan .
14.
Durkheim, E. (1898) ‘L’individualisme et les intellectuels’ [Individualism and the Intellectuals] , Revue bleue10: 7–13 .
15.
Durkheim, E. (1932[1893]) De la division du travail social[The Division of Labor in Society], 6th edn. Paris: Alcan .
16.
Espinas, A. (1878) Des sociÈtÈs animales. DeuxiËme Èdition augmentÈe d’une introduction sur l’histoire de la sociologie en gÈnÈral[Of Animal Societies. Second edition, Augmented with an Introduction to the History of Sociology in General]. Paris: Germer BailliËre .
17.
Espinas, A. (1882a) ‘Les Ètudes sociologiques en France. Les colonies animales’ [Sociological Studies in France: Animal Colonies] , Revue philosophique13: 565–607 .
18.
Espinas, A. (1882b) ‘Les Ètudes sociologiques en France (2e article)’ [Sociological Studies in France (2nd article)] , Revue philosophique14: 337–367 .
19.
Espinas, A. (1882c) ‘Les Ètudes sociologiques en France (3e et dernier article)’ [Sociological Studies in France (3rd and last article)] , Revue philosophique14: 509–528 .
20.
Espinas, A. (1900) ‘ tre ou ne pas Ítre ou du postulat de la sociologie’ [To Be or Not to Be, or, Of the Postulate of Sociology] , Revue philosophique51: 449–480 .
21.
Foucault, M. (1972) The Archeology of Knowledge. New York: Pantheon .
22.
Geiger, R. (1981) ‘RenÈ Worms, l’organicisme et l’organisation de la sociologie’ [RenÈ Worms, Organicism and the Organization of Sociology] , Revue FranÁaise de Sociologie22: 345–360 .
23.
Heilbron, J. (1995) The Rise of Social Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press .
24.
Johns, A. (1998) The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
25.
Jones, R. A. (1977) ‘On Understanding a Sociological Classic’ , American Journal ofSociology83: 279–319 .
26.
Jones, R. A. (1983) ‘The New History of Sociology’ , Annual Review of Sociology9: 447–469 .
27.
Jones, R. A. (1999) The Development of Durkheim’s Social Realism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
28.
Karady, V. (1979) ‘StratÈgies de rÈussite et modes de faire-valoir de la sociologie chez les durkheimiens’ [Success Strategies and Modes of Valorization of Sociology used by the Durkheimians] . Revue franÁaise de sociologie20: 49–82 .
29.
Krauz, C. de K. (1897) ‘La thÈorie organique des sociÈtÈs’ [The Organic Theory of Society] , Annales de l’Institut Internationale de Sociologie4: 260–289 .
30.
Lilienfeld, P. de (1896) La pathologie sociale[Social Pathology]. Paris: Giard & BriËre .
31.
Lilienfeld, P. de (1897) ‘La thÈorie organique des sociÈtÈs’ [The Organic Theory of Society] , Annales de l’Institut Internationale de Sociologie4: 196–236 .
32.
Logue, W. (1983) From Philosophy to Sociology: The Evolution of French Liberalism,1870–1914. Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press .
33.
Martindale, D. (1960) The Nature and Types of Sociological Theory. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press .
34.
Martindale, D. (1988) The Nature and Types of Sociological Theory, 2nd edn. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press .
35.
Muchielli, L. (1998) La dÈcouverte du social: naissance de la sociologie en France (1870–1914)[The Discovery of the Social: the Birth of Sociology in France (1870–1914)]. Paris: La DÈcouverte .
36.
Novicow, J. (1893) Les luttes entre sociÈtÈs humaines et leurs phases successives[The Struggles among Human Societies and their Successive Phases]. Paris: Alcan .
37.
Novicow, J. (1897) ‘La thÈorie organique des sociÈtÈs’ [The Organic Theory of Society] , Annales de l’Institut Internationale de sociologie4: 169–196 .
38.
Novicow, J. (1899) ‘La thÈorie organique des sociÈtÈs. DÈfense de l’organicisme’ [The Organic Theory of Society: Defense of Organicism] , Annales de l’Institut Internationale de Sociologie5: 71–223 .
39.
Novicow, J. (1910) La critique du Darwinisme social[Critique of Social Darwinism]. Paris: Alcan .
40.
Otis, L. (1994) Organic Memory: History and the Body in the Late Nineteenth andEarly Twentieth Centuries. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press .
41.
Otis, L. (1999) Membranes: Metaphors of Invasion in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Science, and Politics. Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press .
42.
Ouy, A. (1925) ‘RenÈ Worms (1869–1936)’ , Revue Internationale de Sociologie11–12: 578–580 .
43.
Paul, H. W. (1967–1968) ‘The Debate over the Bankruptcy of Science in 1895’ , FrenchHistorical Studies5: 299–327 .
44.
Schlanger, J. (1995) Les mÈtaphores de l’organisme[The Metaphors of the Organism]. Paris: L’Harmattan .
45.
Skinner, Q. (1969) ‘Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas’ , History andTheory8: 3–53 .
46.
Skinner, Q. (1970) ‘Conventions and the Understanding of Speech Acts’ , Philosophical Quarterly20: 118–138 .
47.
Skinner, Q. (1974) ‘Some Problems in the Analysis of Political Thought and Action’ , Political Theory2: 277–303 .
48.
Small, A. (1905) General Sociology. Chicago, IL and London: University of Chicago Press and Fisher Unwin .
49.
Sorokin, P. (1928) Contemporary Sociological Theories. New York and London: Harper & Brothers .
50.
Stocking, G. W. (1966) ‘The History of Anthropology: Where, Whence, Whither?’ , Journal for the History of Behavioral Sciences2: 281–290 .
51.
Stocking, G. W. (1967) ‘Anthropologists and Historians as Historians of Anthropology: Critical Comments of Some Recently Published Work’ , Journal for the History of Behavioral Science3: 376–387 .
52.
Stocking, G. W. (1968) ‘On the Limits of “Presentism” and “Historicism” in the Historiography of the Behavioral Sciences’, in Race, Culture and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology. New York: Free Press .
53.
Tarde, G. (1897) ‘La thÈorie organique des sociÈtÈs’ [The Organic Theory of Society] , Annales de l’Institut Internationale de Sociologie4: 237–260 .
54.
Towne, E. Z. (1903) Die Auffassung der Gessellschaft als Organismus, ihreEntwickelung und ihre Modifikationen[The Conception of Society as an Organism, its Development and its Modifications]. Halle: Kaemmerer .
55.
Weindling, P. (1981) ‘Theories of the Cell State in Imperial Germany’, in C. Webster (ed.) Biology, Medicine and Society 1840–1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press , pp. 99–155.
56.
Weisz, G. (1979) ‘L’idÈologie rÈpublicaine et les sciences sociales. Les durkheimiens et la chaire d’histoire et d’Èconomie sociale ‡ la Sorbonne’ [Republican Ideology and the Social Sciences. The Durkheimians and the Chair of Social History and Economy at the Sorbonne] , Revue franÁaise de sociologie20: 83–112 .
57.
Worms, R. (1895) Organisme et sociÈtÈ[Organism and Society]. Paris: Giard & BriËre .
58.
Worms, R. (1897) ‘Discours du SÈcretaire GÈnÈral, M. RenÈ Worms’ [Speech of the Secretary-General, Mr RenÈ Worms] , Annales de l’Institut International de Sociologie4: 41–49 .
