SOURCE: "Sociology and the Social Sciences (1903)," in The Rules of Sociological Method, and Selected Texts on Sociology and Its Method, edited by Steven Lukes, translated by W. D. Halls, The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1982, pp. 175-208.

In the following essay, originally written in 1895, Durkheim discusses Comte's conception of sociology.

Engendered within a philosophy, sheer necessity obliged sociology from the beginning to display the distinctive character of any philosophical discipline: a leaning towards general, overall views and, in contrast, a certain indifference to factual details and specialist investigations. Consequently it was natural for it to develop untrammelled by any special techniques, as an autonomous mode of speculation, capable of being self-sufficient. This stance was moreover justified by the state in which the sciences then were and by the spirit which infused them, one which on these essential points was radically opposed to that on which the new science proceeded. Not...