Durkheim’s sociology inherits the neo-Kantian tradition and divides into two projects

Evidence

Despite appearances, then, Durkheim belonged to the neo-Kantian tradition. “Noumenal” reality had to be studied through its forms of appearance—through “phenomenal” reality. Two related concerns served to inflect this neo-Kantian position in rather different directions—leading to what can only be described as “two” Durkheims. The first was a classic concern with the nature, degree, and types of social solidarity. He followed earlier theorists here in believing that the bonds of social solidarity had been immensely weakened in societies of individual competition (i.e., capitalist market societies). This weakening was, precisely, to be seen in the loosening of the constraining power of “the rules” over individual behavior. The condition, typical of such societies, in which actions were insufficiently “ruled” by norms, he called anomic . — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 354

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘anomie’ precisely as the loosening of normative constraint on action in capitalist market societies, and introduces the ‘two Durkheims’ frame.
• XREF: connects to: Sohn-Rethel sought to derive Kantian categories from the exchange-relation — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 326