The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim
CHAPTER II
148 words | Chapter 5
LEADING CONCEPTIONS OF THE ELEMENTARY RELIGION
I.--_Animism_
Distinction of animism and naturism 48
I.--The three theses of animism: Genesis of the idea of the soul;
Formation of the idea of spirits; Transformation of the cult of
spirits into the cult of nature 49
II.--Criticism of the first thesis--Distinction of the idea of
the soul from that of a double--Dreams do not account for the
idea of the soul 55
III.--Criticism of the second thesis--Death does not explain the
transformation of a soul into a spirit--The cult of the souls
of the dead is not primitive 60
IV.--Criticism of the third thesis--The anthropomorphic
instinct--Spencer's criticism of it; reservations on this
point--Examination of the facts by which this instinct is
said to be proved--Difference between a soul and the spirits
of nature--Religious anthropomorphism is not primitive 65
V.--Conclusion: animism reduces religion to nothing more than
a system of hallucinations 68
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