ABSTRACT
The Rules, originally published in 1894, has the distinction of being available in two separate English translations: one, of 1938 (1964a), the other of 1982. Both of these editions have introductions by well-respected social thinkers (George Catlin and Steven Lukes) who suggest that it is valuable to read the Rules for purely negative reasons. We can all learn, they suggest, from the mistakes of the essay, for its errors are above all highly instructive. Even so, it is regarded as a classic statement of a distinctive position on method in sociology and has played its part, at a certain stage in the intellectual legitimation of sociology, as an academic discipline by proclaiming the specificity of its project and its right to exist.
