ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to understand Emile Durkheim λ 1913-14 lectures on pragmatism and sociology by situating them in the socio-intellectual context of the time. It discusses several implications of the interpretation for sociological theory. The chapter argues that existing interpretations pay insufficient attention to the peculiar manner in which pragmatism was received in France and to the way in which this reception colored the meaning of the lectures for Durkheim. It shows that one of Durkheim's objections to the pragmatic understanding of religion involved a disagreement over the nature of religious experience, and that this disagreement was central to Durkheim's pragmatism lectures. A review of the sparse scholarship on Durkheim's pragmatism lectures reveals several competing interpretative perspectives. According to one group of scholars, Durkheim's attack on pragmatism was primarily epistemological. Anglo-American pragmatism was described in the French literature as a form of anti-intellectualism or irrationalism.
