Durkheim, Emile.

Two Laws of Penal Evolution [I. The Law of Quantitative Variations / II. The Law of Qualitative Variations]. Translated by William Jeffrey, Jr.

Cincinnati, The University of Cincinnati Law review, 1969. 8°. 28 pages. Softcover. Excellent condition. Stamped: “With the Compliments of the Translator”. From the library of exiled sociologist, Kurt H. Wolff, given to him by the TranslatorWilliam Jeffrey, Jr. Original offprint from “The University of Cincinnati Law Review”.

Substantial essay on the development of punishment in moral societies from medieval times to 18th century penal systems.Durkheim explains “the critical situation in which the criminal law among all civilized people is found”. Durkheim reflects the “we have reached a time when penal institutions of the past have either disappeared completeley, or survive only from force of habit….″

David Émile Durkheim (April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917) was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and—with Karl Marx and Max Weber—is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science.

Much of Durkheim’s work was concerned with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in modernity; an era in which traditional social and religious ties are no longer assumed, and in which new social institutions have come into being. His first major sociological work was The Division of Labour in Society (1893). In 1895, he published The Rules of Sociological Method and set up the first European department of sociology, becoming France’s first professor of sociology. In 1898, he established the journal L’Année Sociologique. Durkheim’s seminal monograph, Suicide (1897), a study of suicide rates in Catholic and Protestant populations, pioneered modern social research and served to distinguish social science from psychology and political philosophy. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912) presented a theory of religion, comparing the social and cultural lives of aboriginal and modern societies.

Durkheim was also deeply preoccupied with the acceptance of sociology as a legitimate science. He refined the positivism originally set forth by Auguste Comte, promoting what could be considered as a form of epistemological realism, as well as the use of the hypothetico-deductive model in social science. For him, sociology was the science of institutions, if this term is understood in its broader meaning as “beliefs and modes of behaviour instituted by the collectivity” and its aim being to discover structural social facts. Durkheim was a major proponent of structural functionalism, a foundational perspective in both sociology and anthropology. In his view, social science should be purely holistic; that is, sociology should study phenomena attributed to society at large, rather than being limited to the specific actions of individuals.

He remained a dominant force in French intellectual life until his death in 1917, presenting numerous lectures and published works on a variety of topics, including the sociology of knowledge, morality, social stratification, religion, law, education, and deviance. Durkheimian terms such as “collective consciousness” have since entered the popular lexicon. (Wikipedia)

• Keywords: Catalogue One – History of Law · Catalogue Twelve – Philosophy · Kurt Heinrich Wolff – Brandeis University Sociologist · Kurt Heinrich Wolff – Brandeis University Sociology Department · Kurt Wolff Collection · Kurt Wolff Library (American Sociologist) · Law – Rare · Library & Collection Building · Pamphlets Collection – Harvard · Philosophy Rare · Sociology
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 17664AB