Three faces of God

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Offering a new interpretation of Durkheim's social philosophy, Nielsen (sociology, State U. of New York-Oneonta) challenges the prevailing view of him as a scientific sociologist who identified sociology primarily with the study of collective representations, and argues that he developed a theory of society, religion, and the categories of knowing akin to Spinoza's monist philosophy. From a close textual reading of Durkheim's major and minor writings in English and the original French (quotes are bilingual), his thought is reconstructed in the context of the encounter between traditional religious ideals (particularly Judaism's) and modern science and philosophy; comparisons are made between his work and that of Aristotle, Bacon, Kant, and Renouvier. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.