Responsibility: A Study in Sociology

Emile Durkheim treated responsibility in four lessons in his Course on the Theory of Sanctions, given at the Faculty of Letters in Bordeaux in 1894. When he proposed to me to take up this subject again, he gave me the manuscript of his lessons. I owe to Durkheim, in addition, my entire education in sociology. This is to say that whatever one can find of value in this book, directly or indirectly, comes from him. But the authority of his name does not cover the faults in the work. We were supposed to pick it up and improve it together. The war and his premature death did not permit it. I owe much to the advice of Marcel Mauss, Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études, who was willing to read my manuscript. The manuscript was finished in 1914. With one or two exceptions, I have not cited books that have appeared since then.