Montesquieu

Front Cover
Berghahn Books, 1997 - Philosophy - 206 pages

Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws (1748) is one of the outstanding works of modern social thought. Durkheim's Latin thesis (1892) is not only one of the outstanding interpretations of that work, but also a seminal statement of his own ideas on society and on sociological method. It was the companion thesis to The Division of Labour and a forerunner of The Rules of Sociological Method.

This is the first English translation directly from the original Latin text, and also includes the original text, along with full editorial notes, a related article by Durkheim on Hyppolite Taine and a commentary on Durkheim and Montesquieu by W. Watts Miller.

 

Contents

Preface
3
The necessary conditions of the establishment
11
The extent to which Montesquieu assigned
22
Montesquieus classification of states and societies
31
The extent to which Montesquieu saw definite laws
45
On the method Montesquieu followed
59
Conclusion
71
Durkheim and Montesquieu 83
Bibliography 129
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About the author (1997)

W. Watts Miller is editor of Durkheimian Studies and author of Durkheim, Morals and Modernity.