ABSTRACT

It is astonishing how easily utilitarian social theory, currently enjoying a revival, offers explanations of social order the short-sightedness of which was long ago recognized in sociology. This is proof enough that the refutation of a theory by no means guarantees that it will die out as a result. An important reason for this is that the refutation may be insufficiently circulated within a given discipline. Expressed more concretely, that is to say that the critique of utilitarianism formulated with total clarity by Emile Durkheim as long ago as 1893, and presented in more formalized and logically stringent form from a voluntaristic standpoint in Talcott Parsons’ classic study of 1937, has obviously been insufficiently read. The immediate purpose here is therefore to compensate for the lack of classical reading and remind ourselves of Durkheim’s criticism of utilitarianism. Building upon this critique, we then proceed to a step-by-step enlargement of the theory of social order using the frame of reference of the voluntaristic theory of action.