Modernity and the Problem of Meaning: The Durkheimian Tradition

Content Provider	Scilit
Author	Seidman, Steven
Copyright Year	1985
Description	The rise of modernity signified not only an unprecedented epoch of material progress but evoked a recurring sense of cultural crisis. With the discreditation of the Christian-Aristotelian cosmos, new meaning constellations were necessary to provide cognitive and moral frameworks of order, identity, and purposeful existence. Modern social theory crystallized as an effort to explain but also justify or shape the emerging cultural complex of modernity. In the nineteenth century the dominant perspective on modernity and meaning was the secularization thesis which found its most sophisticated sociological expression in Max Weber and in the Weberians in the twentieth century. I argue that Durkheim, reacting against nineteenth century representatives of the secularization thesis, articulated a contrasting view of modernity and meaning. Furthermore, that the writings of Bellah and Parsons on modernity and meaning fall squarely within this Durkheimian perspective.
Related Links	http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/46/2/109.full.pdf
Ending Page	130
Page Count	22
Starting Page	109
ISSN	00380210
DOI	10.2307/3711055
Journal	Sociological Analysis
Issue Number	2
Volume Number	46
Language	English
Publisher	Duke University Press
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	History Modernity and Meaning Durkheimian Secularization Thesis Nineteenth Century
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article