1st Edition
Affectivity and the Social Bond Transcendence, Economy and Violence in French Social Theory
By Tiina Arppe
Copyright 2014
256 Pages
by
Routledge
256 Pages
by
Routledge
256 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Affectivity and the Social Bond offers a fresh and original perspective on the relationship between affectivity and transcendence in nineteenth and twentieth century French social theory. Engaging in a conceptual analysis of the works of Comte, Durkheim, Bataille and Girard, this book exposes a major transformation brought about by the sociological gaze in understandings of affectivity and its... Read more
Contents: Introduction; Auguste Comte: passion sublimated into love; Émile Durkheim: passion transformed into force and symbol; Georges Bataille and the accursed part of affectivity; René Girard and the mimetic desire; Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.
Biography
Tiina Arppe is a researcher in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has written extensively about Rousseau, Durkheim, Mauss, Bataille, Baudrillard and Girard and is author of two volumes on the sacred in French social theory and the problem of evil in French social theory.
’The concept of the social bond is often considered unproblematic and secure at the heart of modern social theory. Tiina Arppe's careful and probing reading of the writings of four key French theorists - Comte, Durkheim, Bataille and Girard - suggests the analysis of the social bond always presents problems of reason, transcendence, affect and violence. This book is informative, but above all salutary since it challenges us to relinquish any idea of the social as a simple one-dimensional relation. With meticulous scholarship the emergent problematic of emotion and affectivity is here found to be fundamental even in the most rationalistic and positivistic of thinkers, and constitutes an indispensable legacy to both social and political theory.’ Mike Gane, Emeritus Professor, Loughborough University, UK
