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Durkheim upheld Spencer’s
functional idea of separate parts
serving a purpose and the notion
that society was greater than the
sum of its individual elements. And
Auguste Comte’s “positivism” (his
belief that only scientific inquiry
yields true knowledge) helped to
shape the scientific methodology
that Durkheim felt would reveal
how modern society functions.
Durkheim focused on society
as a whole and its institutions,
rather than the motivations and
actions of individuals within
society; above all, he was
interested in the things that hold
society together and maintain
social order. He argued that the
basis for sociological study should
be what he called “social facts,” or
“realities external to the individual”
that can be verified empirically.
Like the other pioneering
sociologists, Durkheim tried to
understand and explain the factors
that had shaped modern society,
the various forces known as
“modernity.” But where Marx had
associated them with capitalism,
and Weber with rationalization,
Durkheim connected the
development of modern society
with industrialization, and in
particular the division of labor that
came with it.A functional organism
What differentiates modern society
from traditional ones, according to
Durkheim, is a fundamental change
in the form of social cohesion; the
advent of industrialization has
evolved a new form of solidarity.
Durkheim outlined his theory
of the different types of social
solidarity in his doctoral thesis,
“The Division of Social Labor.”
In primitive societies, such as
hunter-gatherer groups, individuals
do much the same jobs, and
although each could be self-
sufficient, society is held together
by a sense of a common purpose
and experience, and commonly
held beliefs and values. The
similarity of individuals in suchÉMILE DURKHEIM
Durkheim argued that religions,
especially long-established faiths such
as Judaism, are fundamentally social
institutions that give people a strong
sense of collective consciousness.
a society fosters what Durkheim
called “collective consciousness,”
which is the basis of its solidarity.
But as societies grew in size
and complexity, people began to
develop more specialized skills,
replacing self-reliance with
interdependence. The farmer, for
example, relies on the blacksmith
to shoe his horses, while the
blacksmith relies on the farmer to
provide his food. The mechanical
solidarity, as Durkheim refers to
it, of traditional society becomes
replaced by an organic solidarity
based not on the similarity of its
individual members, but their
complementary differences.
This division of labor reaches its
peak with industrialization, when
society has evolved to become a
complex “organism” in which
individual elements perform
specialized functions, each of
which is essential to the well-being
of the whole. The idea that society
is structured like a biological
organism composed of distinct
parts with specialized functions
became a significant approach to
sociology, known as functionalism.Is it our duty to seek to
become a... complete
human being, one quite
sufficient unto himself;
or... to be only a part of
a whole, the organ of
an organism?
Émile Durkheim