Webthe figurative sources for du bois's idea of double consciousness are in some ways the most telling. Webwhile not a complete figment of our imagination, the universe may only become real because we're looking at it. Samuel johnson thought the idea was so. Webthis reading of du bois might be seen to exemplify the value of standpoint epistemology: Through the careful interpretation of a marginalised figure from a. A study of his classicism and cosmopolitanism is. Du bois is widely recognized for his contributions to the soci ology of race, his contributions to the foundations of sociology are largely ignored. Du bois and american thought, shamoon zamir argues that in spite of du bois's own proclamations regarding his indebtedness to james, the. Webthese essays move beyond this simple dichotomy. We aim to demonstrate that throughout his life, du bois used classical ideas to challenge white americans’. Webthroughout, it is argued that du bois’s work on morality anticipates many of the features of contemporary sociologies of morality in its emphasis on moral. Webdu bois simply couldn’t accept the idea of blacks inhabiting their own realm. He believed, as appiah puts it, in “moral universalism with special devotion to a group. ”. Webbeing able to understand how social facts shape our lives helps us to advance our collective sociological imagination because it focuses on the products of human interaction that characterize a society and possess persuasive and coercive.