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Testing Durkheim: Some Theoretical Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Gerald Turkel
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Abstract

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Empirical tests of Durkheim's legal theories can neither confirm nor refute their central hypotheses. Rather than serving to substantiate or refute theoretical propositions, empirical evidence is best conceptualized as providing for the specification and elaboration of a research program. In the case of Durkheim's legal theories, the programmatic effort is to use social science to help resolve the major social, moral, and legal tensions characteristic of modern society. In this light, Durkheim's legal theories are viewed as comparative and contextual, containing insights into the relationship between law and the social constitution of morality.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , Spring 1979 , pp. 721 - 738
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Paul Colomy for helping to formulate methodological and theoretical perspectives in earlier drafts of this paper.

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