ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the conditions requisite to an understanding of "classic" works in sociological theory, using Emile Durkheim's Elementary Forms of the Religious Life as the example. As for the critical claim, any blanket condemnation of "presentism" in the history of sociological thought ignores certain fundamental facts about historical method. The focus on the Elementary Forms is intended to be purely exemplary—to illustrate problems which are endemic to practices in the history of classical social theory. Among the most frequent and problematic statements made about Durkheim's Elementary Forms are those generated by what has been termed the "mythology of doctrines" or the "humanistplatonism" of intellectual historians. The primary function of an authentic history of sociological theory, as both Thomas Kuhn and Popper affirm, is to help us understand the manner in which people knowledge progresses.
