Professional Ethics and Civic Morals

Emile Durkheim

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429841095
• Subtopic: Social Classes & Economic Disparity
• Index: Social Sciences

Émile Durkheim is one of the founding fathers of sociology and Professional Ethics and Civic Morals is one of his most neglected yet insightful works. Durkheim's view that the instability of industrial society was connected to the decline of religion and his characterization of the state as the ultimate moral force in society reveal his lifelong engagement with the relationship between the individual and society.

In Professional Ethics and Civic Morals Durkheim poses a major question: given the negative social consequences of unfettered markets, which caused what he termed 'anomie', how is the state to reconcile morality with the market? Durkheim argues that the answer is to be found in the evolution of a civil religion, in the form of professional codes and civic values, which would counteract the effects of individualism, just as guilds had regulated medieval economic life.

Arguing that the state has a vital role to play in moral life and that morals are at bottom social facts – a controversial position which drew considerable criticism – Durkheim also argues that the state had a duty to protect the rights of the individual, via a form of cosmopolitan patriotism.

Durkheim also articulates a highly original and critical interpretation of the rules around property and inheritance – a perspective which resonates with debates about inequality and the redistribution of wealth today.

Included in this Routledge Classics edition is a new introduction by Bryan S.Turner, placing Durkheim in contemporary context and outlining the key tenets of Professional Ethics and Civic Morals.

Index

ab intestat, (right of inheritance) 231

Accarias 215, 218

accession, right of (property) 158–159

adhramire, oath 199

advocates’ association 9

aerarii 34

Alsatians 47

Amiens 37

anarchy, political 79

aristocracy 82, 83, 84, 91

Aristotle 4, 64, 82

arles, in contracts 193, 200

army 52; as profession 9

assault and battery, statistics 122

Athens 64; ‘epicleros’ 175; the State 62, 63

Austria, homicide rates 121

bankruptcies, rate of 122

bare owner see under property

beati possidentes 143

Belgium, homicide rates 121

blood covenant 192–193, 195, 202–203

Bluntschli 46, 47

Boissier 23

boundary rituals 161–162, 166–167

bourgeoisie 36

Brahmanism 63

Buddhism 63

burnishers, guild 24

business professions, and ethics 10–11

butchers, guild 24

cara cognatio, festival 22

carpenters, guild 34

Catholic countries, crime rates 126

centuries, (craftsmen) 34

charity, as justice 233–234

children, as chattels 146; labour regulations 42

China 211

Christian societies 63

Church, the: powers and privileges 95; and the State 52

Cicero 19

citizen, the, in relation to the State 55

City States xiv 47, 58, 62, 58, 118

civic duties 114

civic morals 45ff, 59ff, 70ff, 82ff, 92ff, 105ff

Civil Law, Code of 180, 231

clan, the: component of society 62; sacred cults and bonds 160–161, 173; structure 49–50, 85

collective consciousness see consciousness, individual and collective

collegia,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction to the Routledge Classics Edition
• I Professional Ethics
• II Professional Ethics (Continued)
• III Professional Ethics (End)
• IV Civic Morals—Definition of the State
• V Civic Morals (Continued)—Relation of the State and the Individual
• VI Civic Morals (Continued)—The State and the Individual—Patriotism
• VII Civic Morals (Continued)—Form of the State—Democracy
• VIII Civic Morals (Continued)—Form of the State—Democracy
• IX Civic Morals (End)—Form of the State—Democracy
• X Duties in General, Independent of any Social Grouping—Homicide
• XI The Rule Prohibiting Attacks on Property
• XII The Right of Property (Continued)
• XIII The Right of Property (Continued)
• XIV The Right of Property (Continued)
• XV The Right of Contract
• XVI Morals of Contractual Relations (Continued)
• XVII The Right of Contract (End)
• XVIII Morals of Contractual Relations (End)
• Index