Structural Dimension And Symbolic Dimension Of Society

The understanding of Durkheim's sociological thoughts in the Chinese community of scholars remains on the three main books of his early period, while the studies on the late period of Durkheim's works are seldom be found. More over, when the domestic scholars try to explain Durkheim's early works, they are always focusing on some key concepts instead of Durkheim's integral theory, which results in some cases of misunderstanding and improper interpretation. Comparing to the situation of China, however, the works and theory of Durkheim in his later period are becoming more and more important in the international community of scholars. J.C.Alexander argues that the thoughts and theory of Durkeim in his later period have changed fundamentally when comparing to his early works, which far-reaching influences the modern cultural theory. Basing on the frame of Durkheim's theory in the later period, the academics trend of thoughts on cultural autonomy is developing, and substantial research findings have been obtained. Considering to the these problems in domestic and the international trend of academic thoughs, this research is brought out by reinterpreting Durkheim's four main books.By buiding the method of'decription of social prospect', on the one hand, the connection amond the concepts in Durkheim's works will be able to find out, so as to understand his integral theory; on the other hand, the comparation between Durkheim's early and later works will be able to make, so as to find out what exactly the changes are and explain how these changes influence the modern cultural research. It is argued that the early social prospect of Durkheim is'STRUCTURAL DIMENSION', while the later one is'SYMBOLIC DIMENSION', the two of which have explain the change of how Durkheim perceives the society and show that the cultural autonomy research is the continuation and extention of Durheim's later works.Durkheim's changes of thoughts and cutural autonomy research have provided a new angle of view to the theoretical and practical study of sociology. At last, it is believed that the new angle of view has important instructional meanings to reestablish the moral orders of Chinese society.