Lesson 5 Emile Durkheim Robert Wonser SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory Spring 2014.

Lesson 5: Emile DurkheimClassical Sociological Theory

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Lesson 5Emile Durkheim

Robert Wonser

SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory

Spring 2014


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Durkheim’s Life

Born in France in 1858 into a family with a long ancestry of Jewish rabbis.

Was given religious training from an early age – was to be the next rabbi.

Was an excellent student in both religious and secular studies.

He was an agnostic/atheist for most of his life.Durkheim organized and taught France’s first

sociology course.

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Durkheim’s Life

Was active in public politics.Developed an educational curriculum based

upon a “civil morality.”Published over 500 articles, books, and reviews.Founded the first sociology research institute in

the world.Many of his students were killed in WWI.Durkheim’s son was also MIA in WWI which put

Durkheim into a deep depression that cost him his life.


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Intellectual Influences

Charles Montesquieu (1689-1755): Concerned with the question: What is the origin of society? (The

Social Contract Theorists vs. The Social Realists). Emphasis on society as a “thing.” Spirit of Laws – scientific laws, and social laws. Importance of typologies and classificatory systems: republic,

monarchy, despotism. Number, arrangement, and relations among parts. Argued that societies have “spirits,” “definite forms,” resulting from

specific “causes, and having definite “functions.” Durkheim argued that he committed the problem of “final causes”

(teleology and tautology). Espoused cultural relativism. Structures should be assessed by their functions in context.


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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

a leading figure of the French Enlightenment.Presocial “state of nature” of human beings –

humans were crudely sense oriented and driven by basic needs; has little social dependence.

With agriculture and technological innovations came private property, jealously, and competition.

The solution: eliminate self-interest by making social relations parallel human relations to nature – reduce social dependence.


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Advocated a “political state” where self-interest was subordinated to the “general will.”

This is accomplished through an emphasis on civil religions, common mechanisms of socialization, and the creation of a powerful state.

Society is an emergent reality, sui generis – pg. 239. Social Pathologies: three concepts are important: egoism,

anomie, forced division of labor. The Problem of Social Order: Rousseau the state Durkheim society (and subgroups) Society is sacred. Collective conscience Social integration


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Auguste Comte

PositivismDurkheim employed Comte’s

methodology.Organismic AnalogySocial statics – Social SolidaritySocial dynamics – evolution of societies

from simple to complex.


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Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

Tocqueville’s influences on Durkheim:Social structure is integrated when:high coordination of differentiated functions.individuals are attached to collective

organizations.individual freedom is preserved by state.state has a common set of norms and values.state has set of checks and balances.


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Herbert Spencer

Durkheim was very critical of Spencer.A society cannot be organized around

libertarian beliefs, but must be held together by a common morality.

Durkheim’s work is filled with footnotes attacking the works of Spencer.


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Durkheim’s Major Works

1893 – Division of Labor in Society1895 – The Rules of the Sociological

Method1897 – Suicide1912 – Elementary Forms of Religious

Life


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Social Facts

Social facts are the social structures and cultural norms and values that are coercive of the individual and external to, the individual. Ex: language

“sui generis” – “unique”, not reducible to individuals (exists on its own, a thing unto itself)

Can be studied empiricallyExplained by other social facts


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Two Types of Social Facts

Material social facts are easier to understand because they are directly observable, like: architecture, forms of technology, legal codes

Nonmaterial Social Facts are what we now call norms, values, generally culture, like: morality, collective conscious, collective representations and social currents.


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Nonmaterial Social Facts

Morality – society should compel members what to do to curb self interest.

Collective conscious – “totality of people’s beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society forms a determinate system which has its own life” (Durkheim1893/1964:79-80) General structure of shared understandings, norms and beliefs

Collective representations – collective ‘ideas’ and a social ‘force’. Lincoln allows us to think of ourselves, as consumers or patriots.

Social currents – coercive force we’re swept along by and in, sometimes we oppose but it still acts upon us. Ex: waves of enthusiasm, indignation, pity produced in public

gatherings


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The Sociological Theory of Emile DurkheimThe Division of Labor in Society (1893)“sociology’s first classic”Mechanical Solidarity – bond because people

are engaged in similar activities have similar responsibilities.

Organic Solidarity – held together by differences among people by the fact that all have different tasks and responsibilities.

Volume, # of people enveloped by collective conscious, intensity, how deeply individuals feel about it, rigidity, how clearly it is defined, content, the form the collective conscious takes in the two types of society


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The Four Dimensions of the Collective Conscious

Solidarity Volume Intensity Rigidity Content

Mechanical Entire Society High High Religious

OrganicParticular

Groups Low Low

Moral Individualism (individual elevated to a moral precept)


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What causes the transition from one type to the other?

Dynamic density – the number of people in society and the amount of interaction that occurs among them


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Repressive and Restitutive Law

Nonmaterial social facts are difficult to measure directly sociologist should examine material social facts that reflect the nature of, changes in, nonmaterial social facts

Mechanical solidarity uses repressive law, severe punishment because it violates the group and deviation isn't tolerated.

Organic uses restitutive law where offenders must make restitution for their crimes.


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The Sociological Theory of Emile Durkheim: Normal and Pathological Crime is normal, not pathologicalPathological:anomic division of labor – lack of regulation in

society that celebrates isolated individuality and doesn’t tell people what they should do

inequality and forced division of labor – outdated norms can force people into ill suited positions (almost Marxian)

inadequately coordinated division of labor – when specializations don’t result in increased interdependence but instead but simply isolation


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Suicide

Paradigmatic example of how a sociologist should connect theory and research

Chose to study suicide to demonstrate the awesomeness of sociology! (no, really!)

Explained suicide rates, why one group had a higher rate than another

Changes in collective sentiments changes in social currents changes in suicide rates.

Important variables: Integration refers to the attachment people have to society Regulation refers to the degree of external restraint on people.


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Four Types of Suicide

Egoistic – individual is not well integrated into the larger social unit

Altruistic – “social integration is too strong”Anomic – more likely to occur when regulative

powers of society are disrupted little control over their passions, free to run wild, insatiable race for gratification anomie suicide

Fatalistic – excessive regulationAll suicides stem from social currents


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The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

This is Durkheim’s investigation into the sociology of religion.

Concerned with the nature of symbols and their effects on social organization.

He is concerned with three central questions:What is the social glue that weaves individuals into

social units?How are individual desires and self-interests regulated

and controlled?How are individuals attached to the symbolic, and

structural social world?


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Social Rituals

The social mechanisms Durkheim uses to answer these questions are social rituals.

For Durkheim, every religion has three elements:beliefs about the sacred and profanecult organization, a churchrituals toward the sacred totems (symbols)


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The Sacred and the Profane

The worship of the sacred is the worship of societyThe collective conscience as the sacred forceSacred – created through rituals that transform the

moral power of society into religious symbols that bind individuals to the group. Set apart from the everyday, treated with reverence.

Profane – the commonplace, utilitarian and mundane aspects of everyday life.

Religion functions to: regulate human needs and actions integrate society through rituals


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Totemism

Totemism - a religious system in which certain things, particularly animals and plants, come to be regarded as sacred and as emblems of the clan.

Nothing but representations of the clan itself.

Rituals coalesce the group


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Sociology of Knowledge

Durkheim argued that all mental categories are ultimately extensions of religious ideas, and that mental categories are reflections of the social organization of a society.

Social origins of the six fundamental categories that philosophers had previously identified as essential to human understanding.


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Six Fundamental Categories

Time – comes from rhythm of social lifeSpace – develops from the division of space in

societyClassification is tied to the human group

(totemism)Force – derived from experiences with social

forcesImitative rituals are the sources of causalityTotality – society itself


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Collective Effervescence

Collective effervescence – times when even the most fundamental moral and cognitive categories can change or be created a new.

The great moments in history when a collectivity is able to achieve a new and heightened level of collective exaltation that in turn can lead to great changes in the structure of society.

Decisive formative moments in social development

The birth of social facts


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Concepts are collective representations that society produces, at least initially, through religious rituals.

Religion is what connects society and the individual since it is through sacred rituals that social categories become the basis for individual concepts.


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Criticisms

Introduced through Talcott Parsons… as a functionalist.Because his focus was macro

Only occasional and accidental ‘strong functionalist’

Did NOT believe sociologists can infer sociological laws through biological analogy.

Can social facts be studied as he outlines?Social forces controlling individuals? No agency?What should be done from what now exists? Who

decides?

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Lesson 5 Emile Durkheim Robert Wonser SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory Spring 2014.

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