Chapter IX: Conclusion: To what extent the results obtained may be generalized 415

I.--Religion rests upon an experience that is well founded but
not privileged--Necessity of a science to reach the reality at
the bottom of this experience--What is this reality?--The human
groups--Human meaning of religion--Concerning the objection
which opposes the ideal society to the real society 416

How religious individualism and cosmopolitanism are explained in
this theory 424

II.--The eternal element in religion--Concerning the conflict
between science and religion; it has to do solely with the
speculative side of religion--What this side seems destined to
become 427

III.--How has society been able to be the source of logical,
that is to say conceptual, thought? Definition of the concept:
not to be confounded with the general idea; characterized by
its impersonality and communicability--It has a collective
origin--The analysis of its contents bears witness in the same
sense Collective representations as types of ideas which
individuals accept--In regard to the objection that they are
impersonal only on condition of being true--Conceptual thought
is coeval with humanity 431

IV.--How the categories express social things--The chief category
is the concept of totality which could be suggested only by
society--Why the relations expressed by the categories could
become conscious only in society--Society is not an a-logical
being--How the categories tend to detach themselves from
geographically determined groups 439

The unity of science on the one hand, and of morals and religion
on the other--How the society accounts for this unity--
Explanation of the rôle attributed to society: its creative
power--Reactions of sociology upon the science of man 445

THE ELEMENTARY FORMS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE