Professional Ethics and Civic Morals

2013 Reprint of 1958 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In "Professional Ethics and Civic Morals," Emile Durkheim outlined the core of his theory of morality and social rights which was to dominate his work throughout the course of his life. In Durkheim's view, sociology is a science of morals which are objective social facts, and these moral regulations form the basis of individual rights and obligations. This book is crucial to an understanding of Durkheim's sociology because it contains his much-neglected theory of the state as a moral institution, and it provides an understanding of his critique of anomie and egoistic individualism. These writings derive from a course of lectures on sociology given by Durkheim at the University of Bordeaux in 1898, 1899 and 1900 and at the Sorbonne in 1904 and 1912. They provide a clear and lucid account of the problems of man and his place in society, with particular emphasis on the evolution of morals and rights [particularly the rights of property] and the interaction of freedom and duty with the rights and constraints of the law.