Durkheim Bernard and Epistemology

<p>This title first published in 1975 contains two complimentary studies by Paul Q. Hirst: the first based on Claude Bernard’s theory of scientific knowledge and the second concerning Emile Durkheim’s attempt to provide a philosophical foundation for a scientific sociology in <em>The Rules of Sociological Method</em>. The author’s primary concern is to answer the question: is Durkheim’s theory of knowledge logically consistent and philosophically viable? His principal conclusion is that the epistemology developed in the <em>Rules </em>is an impossible one and that its inherent contradictions are proof that sociology as it is commonly understood can never be a scientific discipline.</p>