Emotion,Rationality, and Everyday Life in the Sociology of Emile Durkheim

Durkheim's emphasis on the role of emotion in social life has been influential in the development of the sociology of emotions. Others have analyzed Durkheim's distinctly social conception of reason and rationality. However, the interconnections between “emotion” and “reason” in his thinking have seldom been directly and systematically addressed. These interconnections deserve further explication and development, particularly as they apply to the level of language and action—i.e., “practical reason”—in everyday life. Seeing the collective emotional basis of “social facts,” in general, and “logic,” “reason,” and the basic “categories of the understanding,” in particular, opens up new applications for Durkheim's broader theoretical framework.