Abstract
I do not need to reply to the first of the questions which you do me the honour of posing. Naturally I believe that the present movement in sociology opens up vistas for the future discovery of the laws of social evolution, for I cannot but have faith in the usefulness of the task to which, with so many others, I have devoted my life.
Extract from Les documents du progrès, 2, February 1908, pp. 131–3. Reply to an ‘Enquête sur la sociologie’ (questionnaire concerning sociology) in which two questions were asked:
1. Is it possible to draw conclusions, on the basis of the development so far accomplished with sociological studies, with respect to the future discovery of laws of development and causal relations in social life?
2. By what method will sociology be able to attain that result?
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© 1982 Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Durkheim, E. (1982). The Method of Sociology (1908). In: Lukes, S. (eds) The Rules of Sociological Method. Contemporary Social Theory. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16939-9_16
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