Social Origins of Thought

Johannes F.M. Schick is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities (University of Cologne). He was the head of the DFG-research Project “Action, Operation, Gesture: Technology as Interdisciplinary Anthropology”.Mario Schmidt is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School of the Humanities at the University of Cologne. He has published in distinguished academic journals such as Africa, Journal of Eastern African Studies, Ethnohistory, and Journal of Cultural Economy.Martin Zillinger is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. His major field research has been in Morocco on trance, ritual, and new media.

“It makes a clear contribution to its field by a group of scholars with a coherent nucleus in Germany, many of whom have been researching this topic for years, if not decades … it represents the culmination, at least for the time being, of work on these issues (the Durkheimians and the categories).” Robert Parkin, University of Oxford“This is a collective book from international scholars assessing the legacy of the Durkheim school of sociology through the epistemological question of the origins of categories of thought … This is a significant contribution to the historical epistemology in France.” Frédéric Keck, Director of Research at the Laboratory of Social Anthropology (CNRS-Collège de France-EHESS).

• List of FiguresIntroduction: The Durkheim School’s "Category Project": A Collaborative Experiment UnfoldsJohannes F.M. Schick, Mario Schmidt, and Martin ZillingerPart I: Silenced Influences and Hidden TextsChapter 1. Kantian Categories and the Relativist Turn: A Comparison of Three RoutesGregory SchremppChapter 2. Hidden Durkheim and Hidden Mauss: An Empirical Rereading of the Hidden Analogical Work Made Necessary by the Creation of a New ScienceNicolas SembelChapter 3. Mana in Context: From Max Müller to Marcel MaussNicolas MeylanChapter 4. Durkheim, the Question of the Categories and the Concept of LaborSusan Stedman JonesChapter 5. Inequality Is a Scientific Issue When the Technologies of Practice That Create Social Categories Become Dependent on Justice in ModernityAnne Warfield RawlsChapter 6. Experimenting with Social Matter: Claude Bernard's Influence on the Durkheim School's Understanding of CategoriesMario SchmidtPart II: Lateral Links and Ambivalent AntagonistsChapter 7. Freedom, Food, and the Total Social Fact. Some Terminological Details of the Category Project in "Le Don" by Marcel MaussErhard SchüttpelzChapter 8. Durkheimian Thinking and the Category of TotalityNick J. AllenChapter 9. Durkheimian Creative Effervescence, Bergson and the Ethology of Animal and Human SocietiesWilliam Watts MillerChapter 10. "It is not my time that is thus arranged…": Bergson, the 'Category Project', and the Structuralist TurnHeike DelitzChapter 11. "Let Us Dare a Little Bit of Metaphysics": Marcel Mauss, Henri Hubert and Louis Weber on Causality, Time, and TechnologyJohannes F. M. SchickPart III: Forgotten Allies and Secret StudentsChapter 12. The Rhythm of Space: Stefan Czarnowski's Relational Theory of the SacredMartin ZillingerChapter 13. La Pensée Catégorique: Marcel Granet's Grand Sinological Project at the Heart of the "L'Année Sociologique" TraditionRobert André LaFleurChapter 14. Drawing a Line: On Hertz' HandsUlrich van LoyenChapter 15. Between Claude Lévi-Strauss, Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault, or: What Is the Meaning of Mauss' "Total Social Fact"?Jean-François BertChapter 16. From Durkheim to Halbwachs: Rebuilding the Theory of Collective RepresentationsJean-Christoph MarcelChapter 17. Durkheim’s Quest: Philosophy beyond the Classroom and the LibrariesWendy JamesIndex