ABSTRACT
Before examining in detail Durkheim’s problems in composing the text of the Rules it is essential to examine the evolution of his conception of methodology over the whole of his career. There are two sides to this. One concerns the series of explicit discussions of methodological problems and aims which he wrote at regular intervals; the other concerns his practical efforts of sociological analysis and the discussions of method in these works. One of the persistent criticisms of the Rules is that Durkheim himself never applied them, and they are nothing but a flagwaving exercise. In this chapter I will concentrate on the issue of the consistency of the formal declarations of intent which appeared in critical articles and even in public debates. At this stage of the discussion I will simply select a number of considerations of method made at rough intervals: the early works of 1885-8; the works accompanying the Rules in the mid-1890s; and selections around 1901, around 1909, and 1915. The aim is to take a cross section through the work of these various periods to reach a view of the kind of method Durkheim was then promoting in them. It is a useful exercise since it is also clear that considerations of method were intimately bound up with Durkheim’s claims for the larger role of sociology in the social sciences and beyond.
