The Social Origins of Thought

The Social Origins of Thought explores the Durkheim School’s ambitious critique of philosophical interpretations of the genesis and constitution of the categories of thought. With contributions from philosophy, sociology, anthropology, media studies, and sinology, this volume illustrates the interdisciplinarity and intellectual rigor of the “category project”.

Johannes F.M. Schick is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities (University of Cologne). He was the head of the DFG-research Project “Action, Operation, Gesture: Technology as Interdisciplinary Anthropology”.

Mario Schmidt is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School of the Humanities at the University of Cologne. He has published in distinguished academic journals such as Africa, Journal of Eastern African Studies, Ethnohistory, and Journal of Cultural Economy.

Martin Zillinger is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. His major field research has been in Morocco on trance, ritual, and new media.

Johannes F.M. Schick is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities (University of Cologne). He was the head of the DFG-research Project “Action, Operation, Gesture: Technology as Interdisciplinary Anthropology”.

“It makes a clear contribution to its field by a group of scholars with a coherent nucleus in Germany, many of whom have been researching this topic for years, if not decades … it represents the culmination, at least for the time being, of work on these issues (the Durkheimians and the categories).” • Robert Parkin, University of Oxford

“This is a collective book from international scholars assessing the legacy of the Durkheim school of sociology through the epistemological question of the origins of categories of thought … This is a significant contribution to the historical epistemology in France.” • Frédéric Keck, Director of Research at the Laboratory of Social Anthropology (CNRS-Collège de France-EHESS).