“With reference to practical social doctrines, our method permits and commands the same independence. Sociology thus understood will be neither individualistic, communistic, nor socialistic in the sense commonly given these words. On principle, it will ignore these theories, in which it could not recognize any scientific value, since they tend not to describe or interpret, but to reform, social organization.”

—  Émile Durkheim

Source: Rules of Sociological Method, 1895, p. 75

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Émile Durkheim 43
French sociologist (1858-1917) 1858–1917

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