Durkheim, Dreyfus Case and the liberal republicanism in the Third French Republic

The purpose of this article is to analyze the positions taken by Emile Durkheim in the course of the controversial Dreyfus Affair, which, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, sharpened political passions of competing groups, eventually mobilizing French public opinion. The aim is thus go through the ideas of the French sociologist concerning republicanism and, to the extent possible, to emphasize its humanistic conception as opposed to hierarchical conceptions represented by Catholic monarchist conservatism.