Abstract:

This paper attempts to systematically outline Durkheim's sociology of action with the two core concepts of "life" and "ideal" as the main axis. Firstly, Durkheim's sociology of action begins with a sociomorphological analysis and a sociopathological diagnosis of the crisis of modernity caused by the separation of thinking and action. He focuses on two major types of actors, namely intellectuals and citizens, as presented in his work Suicide. Secondly, through the analysis of core texts such as Ethics and the Sociology of Morals and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, the paper points out that Durkheim's action schema not only absorbs the routine actions carried out by citizens in their daily lives for the needs of their faith, but also includes the creative actions taken by sociologists to rebuild the common ideals in times of crisis. Thirdly, through an examination of Durkheim's thoughts and actions during the Dreyfus Affair and the World War I, the paper further points out that the two types of actors and their iconography of action sketched by Durkheim are not isolated from each other but rather intertwined together. Only through the common communication and collective action between citizens and intellectuals can sociology break through the barriers of binary opposition between science and belief, thinking and action, body and mind under the conditions of modernity, thus expanding the boundaries of intellectuals'rationalism, while at the same time integrating the public needs into the orbit of civilization, and jointly creating sacred ideals that are appropriate to the times, and realizing the reconstruction and renewal of society. Finally, Durkheim's reflection on the issue of action inherits and carries forward the intellectual tradition of French "political rationalism", highlights the political concerns of sociology and the public responsibilities of intellectuals, and provides us with a model of "embodying one's ideas with one's actions" on how to think about social theories in our time.

Key words: routine actions, creative actions, life and ideal, intellectuals and citizens, political concerns of sociology