ABSTRACT
Text reviewed: F.S.Merlino’s, Formes et essences du socialisme (Paris: Giard and Briere, 1898) by E.Durkheim1
Some interesting work has been going on for sometime within the socialist party. Virtually everywhere, but especially in Germany, Belgium and Italy, there is felt a need to recast and open up the formulae within which people have been imprisoned for too long. The doctrine of economic materialism, the marxist theory of value, the iron law, the paramount importance attached to class conflict, all these postulates, which the party still makes use of in its propaganda, are starting to appear somewhat outdated; anyone who is aware of the present state of the sciences and of the direction in which they are going can hardly be satisfied with them. It was therefore natural that attempts should be made to free the socialist idea from these old and questionable hypotheses which jeopardise it, and that people should work towards harmonising it with the recent advances made in science. It is to this task of renewal that Merlino offers his collaboration in the book which I am reviewing here.
