Verstehen

On the eve of my classical sociological theory exam (my third to last final!) I find myself contemplating the words of 3 deep thinkers. Max Weber believed that as a study of society, sociology is well suited to provide "verstehen," in other words understanding/interpretation. I hope I have a little more of this by tom. afternoon! We've also studied the words of French theorist (do you know him Sarah?) Emile Durkheim who often wrote about the effects of living a religious life. I love what he said in his essay The Elementary Forms of Religious life, "The believer who has communicated with his God is not merely a man who sees new truths of which the unbeliever is ignorant; he is a man who is stronger. He feels within him more force, either to endure the trials of existence, or to conquer them. It is as though he were raised above the miseries of the world, because he is raised above his conditions as a mere man." That quote is out of context and doesn't accurately reflect the nuances of Durkheim's attitude towards religion, but I am inspired by the observation nonetheless. This connects well with another quote taken out of context, a thought by the third theorist on tom's final, George Simmel who opened an essay with the line "Knowledge of truth is a weapon in the struggle for existence." Perhaps acquiring knowledge of absolute truths is the goal of our existence, what do you think?