Durkheim’s preconceptions

reflection from Gadamer’s phenomenology

Abstract

Durkheim has had a clear influence in the conformation of sociology as a science, where, by means of the sociological method, establishes the ontological, epistemological and methodological bases of what sociology shall consider as its object of study and the way in which the social scientist must approach the external. The objective of this essay is to understand the undeclared influences within the truths defended and raised by the author at the time he wrote The Rules of the Sociological Method, through the hermeneutic phenomenological principles of Gadamer.In order to do that, first we will establish the conceptual framework to understand Gadamer’s perspective, then analize Durkheim's principles for the construction of his conceptual framework, to ultimately analyze the influences and the definition of how the sociologist must access the world through reason, also observing the theoretical insights that Durkheim extracts to elaborate his theory.