The structuralist twisting of Durkheimian sociology: Symbolism, moral reality, and the social subject

Abstract

The idea that has dominated French social thought since the 1950s, according to which symbolism is the origin of social life, is largely due to Lévi-Strauss’ reading of Durkheim. The problem according to Lévi-Strauss is that Durkheim tried to ground the sui generis character of social reality on collective representations expressed in symbols, while explaining the origin of symbolism by social reality, a fatal circularity in his view. This article presents a confrontation between Durkheim’s theory of symbolism and Lévi-Strauss’ simplistic interpretation of it. It considers Lévi-Strauss’ solution to the contradiction produced by his own interpretation and then criticizes that solution for failing to account for the moral character of social reality and the social constitution of social actors, which were both at the center of Durkheim’s sociology. Finally, the performative account of symbols, and especially of grammatical persons, developed by some French social thinkers – Benveniste, Ortigues, and Descombes – in reaction to Lévi-Strauss’ structuralism is considered. The contemporary linguistic analysis shows that Durkheim’s theory of symbolism, far from falling into the naïve circularity that Lévi-Strauss attributed to it, links social practice and symbolism in a sophisticated internal dynamic.