Durkheim

Functionalist/discredited, but right way to do sociology. If there is social fact, then it has occurred
because society needs it.

How is Durkheim a functionalist?

1. Durkheim's main ideas

1. Durkheim believed that sociology had own object distinct from biology or psychology, that
could be studied through the scientific method.
2. Social facts
3. The evolutionary change from one form of social cohesion to another and the role of
individuaism in modern societies
4. Despite growth of individualism, society is not falling apart. It is held together by the
division of labor
5. The state is a mediator ensuring smooth development through modernization.
2. Discovery of social facts
1. Durkheim is the archetypical sociological positivist
2. Auguste Comte was a big influence on Durkheim; Comte believed that laws of society
could be discovered, that will allow us to predict what will happen and therefore control
what will happen; society is thought of as a whole, no one part of society can be thought of
separately from the others.
3. “A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual a
social constraint; or again, every way of acting which is general throughout a given society,
while at the same time existing in its own right independent of its individual
manifestations.”; a social fact is imposed on us from outside, it is a particularly high degree
of constraint.
4. Social facts are to be considered as things; tries to distinguish sociological analysis from
speculative theorizing; reality of society independent from ideas about it; scientific concepts
vs. premonitions; social facts remain the same regardless of how we look at them, they are
objective; objectivity is a quality of objects.
5. Social facts must meet three criteria: 1) clear of premonitions, 2) it must be general, 3) it is
an external constraint; social facts are to be distinguished statisticlly.
6. Normal vs Pathological; a social fact is normal when it is “present in the average society of
that species in the corresponding stage of evolution.” The normal is healthy because it is an
important part of the functioning of that society. Contribute towards cohesion and
mechanism of social change.
7. Efficient cause is a historical explanation for a social fact. Function is how it contributes to
the continuing existence of society. The function does not explain the appearance.
3. Conception of social structure
1. Introduction
1. Social integration: the way in which individuals are bound up
2. System integration: the way in which institutions are bound up.
3. Trying to understand how different parts of society were related to each other as well as
concerned about the place of the individual in society.
2. Types of Solidarity: The Division of Labor
1. Mechanical solidarity: very little division of labor
2. Organic solidarity: highly developed division of labor
 3. 'Visible symbol' of form of solidarity is legal form
4. Mechanical solidarity is distinguished by repressive law: punishment to those who
offend moral sentiments of society
5. Conscience collective: collection of strongest values and norms of society/basic way of
seeing the world.
6. In mechanical solidarity: 1) conscience collective exists above society, 2) division of
labor is at a basic level, 3) all individuals share same basic ideas
7. In organic solidarity: 1) highly organized division of labor, 2) difference acts to bring
people together: “its true function is to create between two or more people a feeling of
solidarity.”
8. Function of something explains why it continues to exist, rather then explain historical
origin.
9. Conscience collective continues to exist but at an individual level.
10. External manifestation is restitutive law: aim to restore the status quo ante: contracts are
to be kept, people who are wronged are compensated etc.
11. Paradox of organic solidarity: people become more individuated and more dependent on
society.
12. Individualism is the conscience collective
13. The two types of solidarity are ideal types.
14. In order to explain social conflict, three types of abnormal divisions of labor.
15. Anomic division of labor: class conflict; incomplete development of organic solidarity
from mechanical solidarity, in the development of industrial society.
16. Forced Division of labor: external inequalities which prevent the healthy development
of the division of labor; inheritance, position based on family.
17. Managerial deficiency: the division of labor is not the best organized.
3. Sociology of Religion and Knowledge
1. Religion is at the center of Durkheim's sociology; The Elementary Forms of Religious
Life.
2. Religious beliefs are representations of the power of society. A shared way of thinking.
3. Three hypotheses about religion: the casual, the interpretive, and the functional.
4. Casual: Religion is the result of a collective experience.
5. Interpretive: Religion is an elementary theory of the way the world and society work.
6. Functional: Religion maintains and reinforces social cohesion.
7. Each society generates its own conceptions of logical connection
8. The structure of society is responsible for the structure of our thinking
4. Sociology of Morality and Education
1. Durkheim is a conservative in morality and a radical in education.
2. A moral action seeks the common good of society over the individual.
3. Forms of morality could become outdated and supplanted. As society changed.
4. Education of the young: influence of adult on child/lifelong process.
5. Spontaneous education-child observes adult-mechanical solidarity
6. Direct education-teacher teach essentials-organic solidarity
7. Direct education is concerned with intellectual concepts and moral ideas.
8. Teacher must teach morality as a power above people in class: discipline.
9. Education should also teach children independent moral reasoning.
5. Sociology of Law, State and Politics
1. The state is a strong central power with no opposition; historically contingent.
2. Crucial feature of state is to regulate secondary groups.
3. The growth of the state enables the rights of individuals.
 4. There is a need for the state to make sure that secondary groups (rival to state: anybody
who has control over people that regulates part of the division of labor) do no exert
despotic control over their members
4. History and Social Change
1. The development from mechanical to organic solidarity is a matter of population growth.
2. Competition for scarce resources accompanies population growth
3. This leads to organic division of labor