Émile Durkheim, 1858 1917 Religion, Social Facts,...
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Emile Durkheim, 1858–1917Religion, Social Facts, and Social Life
Professor Andrew J. Perrin
Sociology 250August 27, 2013
Professor Andrew J. Perrin Emile Durkheim, 1858–1917Religion, Social Facts, and Social LifeSociology 250August 27, 2013 1 / 32
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Remembering last time....
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Durkheim
Born in 1858 in Alsace-Lorraine from a long line of rabbis
Expected to become a rabbi
Became concerned with the relevance of religious teachings to themodern world
A star student, he eventually became professor at the Sorbonne inParis
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Advocate for the Discipline
Why is Durkheim the first author in nearly every social theory class?
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Durkheim’s Most Famous Works
Early Work Society, Sociability, and Social Science
The Division of Labor in Society (1893)The Rules of Sociological Method (1895)Suicide (1897)
Later Work Ideas, Imaginations, Religion
Primitive Classification (1903, with Marcel Mauss)The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912)
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A Partial Tour through the Wonders of Durkheim
When, Why, and How Do Societies Stay Together?
Modernization and the Division of Labor
Science Positive
Social Facts
The symbolic work of community
Bringing it all together: symbols, trust, and modernity
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The Division of Labor in Society (1893)
General course of all societies: premodern ⇒ modern
The principal change: division of labor
Differentiation brings mutual dependence
Bonds among different kinds
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Logic and Methods: The Division of Labor. . .
Search for universal or widespread tendencies
Similarities in form between society and biology
Understand the functions of social phenomena
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The Increasing Division of Labor
The law of the division of labour applies to organisms as well as tosocieties.. . . The division of labour in society appears no more than a
special form of this general development.
Division of Labor in Societyp. 3
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Division of Labor: Apparent Benefits
Since it increases both the productive capacity and skill of the workman, itis the necessary condition for the intellectual and material development of
societies; it is the source of civilisation.
DoL, p. 12
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Division of Labor: Cultural Impact
We perceive perfection in the competent man, one who seeks not to becomplete but to be productive, one who has a well-defined job to which he
devotes himself, and carries out his task, ploughing his single furrow.
DoL, p. 4
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Division of Labor: Cultural Problems
Far from it assisting the progress of morality, it is in the great industrialcentres that crime and suicide are most frequent.
DoL, p. 13
. . . the number of such morbid phenomena seems to increase as the arts,science and industry progress.
DoL, p. 12
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Division of Labor: The Real Functions
The economic services that it (DOL) can render are insignificant comparedwith the moral effect that it produces, and its true function is to create
between two or more people a feeling of solidarity.
DoL, p 17
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Durkheim on Economy and Society
For Durkheim, the economy was always part of society, and depended onsocial bonds to develop. Therefore:
economic efficiency cannot explain social behavior or social change
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The Types of Solidarity
Mechanical Solidarity In “primitive” societies; people feel solidarity withone another because they are similar. Societies areundifferentiated; they therefore split often. Religion holdssocieties together through shared beliefs.
Organic Solidarity In “modern” societies; people feel solidarity with oneanother because they are different. Societies are radicallydifferentiated; they do not split because every part dependson every other part.
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Psychological Example
Doubtless, sexual attraction is never felt save between individuals of thesame species, and fairly generally love presumes a certain harmony of
thought and feeling. It is nevertheless true that what imparts its specificcharacter to this tendency and generates its specific force is not the
similarity but the dissimilarity of the natures that it links together. It isbecause men and women differ from one another that they seek out one
another with such passion.
DoL, p. 17
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Early Durkheim: Main Points
Society as a fundamental unit of study
Sociability as preceding economic rationality
Society—like organisms—progresses toward complexity andinterdependence, and therefore toward secularization
The opportunities and problems of modernity
Methodological insights:
Social facts (faits sociaux)Elementary forms (formes elementaire)
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The Religion of Modernity
There is indeed one area in which the common consciousness has grownstronger, becoming more clearly delineated: in its view of the individual.
As all the other beliefs and practices assume less and less religious acharacter, the individual becomes the object of a sort of religion. We carry
on the worship of the dignity of the human person.. . . it is a commonfaith.. . . It is indeed from society that it draws all this strength.
DoL, p. 122
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Primitive Classification (1903, with Marcel Mauss)
. . . to classify is not only to form groups; it means arranging these groupsaccording to particular relations.. . . There are some which are dominant,others which are dominated, still others which are independent of each
other. Every classification implies a hierarchical order for which neither thetangible world nor our mind gives us the model.. . . we must. . . ask
ourselves what could have led them to arrange their ideas in this way, andwhere they could have found the plan of this remarkable disposition.
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The Role of Language
Saussure: Course in General Linguistics (1913). Language structuresthought; without naming and categorizing, it is impossible to think orknow.
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Les Formes elementaires de la vie religieuse
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
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Logic of the Elementary Forms
What is the function of religion?
How can we understand religion scientifically?
Methodology: seek the most primitive (elementary) forms and workforward
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. . . we descend to the least evolved societies known, those which theGermans call. . . Naturvolker. . . . There is a complete lack of distinctionbetween [the individual] and his exterior soul or his totem. He and his
‘fellow-animal’ together compose a single personality.
Primitive Classification, p. 6
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The Totem
It is the tangible form in which that intangible substance [society] isrepresented in the imagination; diffused through all sorts of disparate
beings, that energy alone is the real object of the cult.
Formes (Trans. Fields) 191
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Collective Effervescence
Feeling possessed and led on by some sort of external power that makeshim think and act differently than he normally does, he naturally feels he is
no longer himself. It seems to him that he has become a new being.
Formes (Trans. Fields) 219–220
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Religion: Functions
The main object of religion is not to give man a representation of thenatural universe. . . . In this respect, it [would be] barely more than a fabric
of errors. But Religion is first and foremost a system of ideas bymeans of which individuals imagine the society of which they are
members and the obscure yet intimate relations they have with it.
Formes (Trans. Fields) 227
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Religion: Definition
A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacredthings, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices
which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all thosewho adhere to them.
Formes (Trans. Fields) 44
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Religion as an Eminently Social Thing
The symbol thus takes the place of the thing, and the emotions arousedare transferred to the symbol. It is the symbol that is loved, feared, and
respected.
Formes (Trans. Fields) 221–22
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The “God/Society Equation”
“Is it not that the god and the society are one and the same?”
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