The Ideas of a Sociologist, Emile Durkheim

Durkheim was a France sociologist who devoted his life to establish how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in modern era. He was able to published several books in sociology. In his first book; The Division of Labour in Society, he argues that in every society there exist a social solidarity produced by labour division, and societies that shows division of labour is highly developed and produces contributes to the general integration of the society, and where solidarity exists it manifest itself in noticeable effects. The more the members of the society are socially integrated they show more diversity in relations, with each other or other groups. The importance of this is that social life shows durable existence and tends to assume a precise form, and more organized.

It is agued that social relations can be fixed without use of juridical form. This is because there regulations sometimes do not attain consolidation or precision standards. Therefore, they are control are regulated by custom rather that law. This is because law usually reflect social life and most of the time provides incomplete data for resolving problems. There is a saying that say ‘custom tempers the rigors of the law’ due to its ability to mitigate excessive formalism and sometimes inspired by a completely different spirit.

Durkheim explained that new relationships are established when law no longer correspond to the current state of society, though maintained with no apparent reason. These social relations can exist which requires only diffuse regulation from custom, this is because they lack importance and continuity. Solidarity depends on sociology because it is a social fact that can only be understood through its social effects. Juridical rules are classified according to the different sanctions attached to them, and are classified into two; the first one relies on imposing suffering or disadvantage of the offender. Its role is to diminish one honor, fortune, life or freedom. The second type do not involve any kind of suffering but involves restoring the previous state of affairs. It is done by forcibly restoring the disputed act to the form which is deviated.

He argued that a sanction can be distinguished by a fact that there is no expiatory, but simply consists a return to a previous state. Suffering is not inflicted on the one who has violated the law but only ordered to comply with the law. He expressed that payment of damages do not have penal character but a mean of reviewing the past in order to restore it to normal conditions. The rules are relatively external to the collective consciousness, and are not concerned with individuals. Negative solidarity doesn’t bring integration and there is two positive kind of solidarity. The first links individuals directly to society with intermediary, while the second the individual depends on the society.

The first kind is a collective type because the society is organized. This kind can only be strong to an extent the idea and inclinations of the society are greater in number intensity. Division of labour as explained develops to an extent that there are more individuals in sufficient contact to be able to act and react upon one another. There are three way in which the density of society develops. The division of labour varies in direct ration with the volume and density of society and, if it progresses in a continuous way throughout the course of social development.

Division of labour is a result of struggle for existence. It provides a mean of sustenance and survival for a greater number of individuals who would be condemned to extinction. Durkheim puts it that collective consciousness becomes weaker and vaguer with development of division of labour. It is normal for division of labour to produce social solidarity but sometimes it can produce totally different or opposite results.

Social facts are terms used to designate almost all phenomena that occurs within a society, even if they present very little social interest. In reality there are certain phenomena in every society that are separable because of their unique characteristics. Social facts generally consist of beliefs and practices by an individual or society. Durkheim argued that these facts can be found in the consciousness of each individual and movements which are repeated by all individuals. They assume a tangible shape or form which is an individual fact which manifest or show the reality, Durkheim referred them as sui generis. Collective custom is a privilege which exist in a state of immanence in the successive actions.

Social fact is identifiably by the power of external coercion which exert or is capable of exerting upon individuals. They exercise cohesive power on individuals, making the society and can be observed in the case of law, morality, beliefs, customs, and even family norms. Social facts cannot have material and cannot be reduced to either biological or psychological grounds as argued by Durkheim. These facts cannot be seen or touch, they are only external and coercive.

From the elementary of form of Religious life, Durkheim tries to establish the origin and functions of religion. It is said that a religious system is the most primitive form which is available for observation, but it must meet these two conditions; first it must be found in the societies, secondly, it must be explainable without the introduction of any element from a predecessor religion. He also wanted to identify the connections between certain religions in different cultures, so as to find a common denominator.

These elements cannot be uncovered by only observing the complexity of religions that have risen in the course of history, but also use of primitive religions and civilizations. Although, primitive religions don’t allow us to isolate constituent elements of religions, they aid in its explanation. Durkheim defined religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things. He avoided the use of supernatural in his definition because he said that use of supernatural is a notion that is beyond our understanding and it is recent in the history of religion.

According to Durkheim, early people saw everything as supernatural and there were religions which the idea of gods and spirits was absent, like in the case of Buddhism. In this case, religion is broader than the idea of gods of spirits and cannot be defined exclusively using those terms. Religious phenomena are grouped into two; beliefs and rites. Beliefs states the opinion and consists of representation while rites are modes of action. Either complex or simple religions shows common features, and it was from this that Durkheim argued that there are three concepts namely; sacred, the belief and practices. He mostly focused on sacred indicating that it is at the very center religion. He defined sacred things as simply collective ideas that have fixed themselves on materials objects and are collective forces.

Durkheim believed that religion is a fundamental social institution to mankind and it was what gave humanity the strongest sense of collective consciousness. Over time religion became more organized giving a rise to the division between sacred and beliefs, and it is through religion that other categories of societies rise.

Durkheim work on religion faces challenges because it was criticized by other specialists on both empirical and theoretical ends. They argued that Durkheim work lack critical stance toward his sources which was collected by traders and priests and that he used dubious data.

There are several situations that can lead to breakdown of social integration. Durkheim view crime from conventional notions. He argued that crime is brought about by change in social life. He also believed that crime can be able to release certain tensions and have cleaning and purging effects in the society, and also viewed crime and delinquent behavior as a normal and necessary occurrence in the social system. It was through crime that shared reactions were used to develop common accords in which they saw as moral and ethical norms to abide and follow.

Durkheim also believed in functionalism of society, which relies mostly on societal equilibrium. He argued that proper analysis of the society was necessary in terms of functions, and also that society is made up of inter-related or inter-connected system which no one part can function without the others.

From Dualism of Human and its Social Conditions, Durkheim argued that duality corresponds to the double existence that we lead concurrently; the one purely individual and rooted to our organisms, and the other social and nothing but an extension of society. The rules of morality are norms that is elaborated by society, and society has its own nature and consequently its requirements are quite different from those of individuals.