Durkheim’s American reception distorted his focus on ideas into positivism

Evidence

Durkheim’s position on this question was misunderstood in his day and has been much misrepresented since. 26 A major factor in this must be attributed to the selective manner in which Durkheim’s work has been appropriated (expropriated might be more accurate) into mainstream American empirical social science. 27 Durkheim is regarded as the “father” of positive social science because he rejected all the Germanic nonsense about ideas: about Mind and Spirit. He consigned “ideas” to a little black box not because they were unimportant but because they could not be analyzed. Instead, he determined to treat what could be analyzed—patterned social interaction governed by norms and channeled by institutional structures. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 352

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s broader study of how intellectual traditions get selectively appropriated—connects to canon-formation debates and Hall’s recurring critique of empirical American social science.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: exactly which American appropriations of Durkheim did Hall consider expropriation, and what were the actual misreadings?