What 1. is the relationship between Catholicism/Protestantism and suicide? The countries that are purely Protestant have a much higher rate of suicide than Catholic countries.
2. Are Jews more or less likely to commit suicide than Catholics? What Jewish characteristics would be associated with higher than average suicide rates? Jews are less likely to commit suicide than Catholics. Jews live in cities and are in intellectual occupations.
3. Is it minority status as such that is associated with lower suicide rates? Do Catholicisms teachings prohibit suicide more than those of Protestantism? Minority statuses are associated with lower suicide rates. Both Catholicism and Protestantism prohibit suicide with equal emphasis.
4. What is the only essential difference between Catholicism and Protestantism? How does this relate to the role of tradition and community/solidarity in peoples lives? Relate Judaism to this observation. The only difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is that Protestantism permits free inquiry to a far greater degree. People that are allowed free inquiry are far more individualistic and less united because they dont have a concrete doctrine that everyone can look upon. Judaism lives very little room for individual judgment and therefore they are more closely knit as a community.
5. How does Englands low suicide confirm not refute Durkheims thesis? Although England is a Protestant country it resembles that of a Catholic country and it holds to many obligatory beliefs and practices: First, the law still sanctions many religious requirements such as the observance of Sunday. Second, England takes tradition very seriously including religious tradition. Thirdly, Anglican clergy is the only Protestant clergy organized in a hierarchy. This limits religious individualism and free inquiry.
6. How is religion related to literacy/education? How is literacy/education related to suicide? People in what types of occupations are most prone to suicide? Do men or women successfully commit suicide more often? How do negro women in the U.S. demonstrate Durkheims point? When irrational religious beliefs or practices have lost their hold people begin to learn and search for new ones therefore the desire for learning is stronger among Protestants. The more educated you are the higher possibility of suicide. Liberal professions such as public officials, business, arts and literature are most likely to commit suicide. Men successfully commit suicide than women because women are less educated. Although negro women are more prone to commit suicide than their husbands, they are equally or much more educated than their husbands anyway.
7. In what religion is education most general? How does Durkheim account for this fact, given this groups low suicide rates? In Judaism education is most general. Although Jews are better educated and commit less suicides than Protestants, a Jew seeks to learn, no in order to replace his collective prejudices by reflective thought, but merely to be better armed for the struggle that is on him/her for being a Jew.
8. Do married or unmarried people commit suicide more often? How does including people under age 16 distort the statistics? Married people commit suicide more often. Because most unmarried people are very young, unmarried people are less likely to commit suicide because of youth.
9. Which age group is the exception, when being married is related to suicide? Younger married people, men under the age of 20
10. What is the coefficient of preservation? What would a coefficient of preservation of 2 mean, when comparing married to unmarried men? The number how showing many times less frequent suicide is in one group than in another at the same age. A coefficient of preservation of 2 means that unmarried men are twice as likely to commit suicide as married people.
11. The immunity of married people from suicide might follow from what two causes? Which would you guess Durkheim believes is the real one? The first is the influence of the domestic environment; the influence of the family neutralizes the tendency of suicide. The second is matrimonial selection; not everyone who wants to get married gets married. I guess Durkheim would believe it is the first one because of the power of the family.
12. When did suicide make its appearance in ancient Greece and Rome? Suicide made its appearance with the overthrow of the old city-state organizations.
13. What effect did political revolution have upon suicide in 19th century France? Suicides decreased.
14. How do national wars affect suicide? Are these effects limited to the conquerors or the invaders? National wars also decrease suicide partly because people are drafted and it is hard to keep up with suicides in a war. The effects affect both conquerors and invaders.
15. What three propositions does Durkheim present in summary? What do they have in common? What does he call the form of suicide springing from excessive individualism?
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Suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration of religious society; suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration of domestic society; suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration of political society. They are vary inversely. Egotistic suicide
Notes: I. Human Nature as Silly Putty: The Nature of Social Facts There is no conception of human nature in Durkheim. Everything is socially constructed. What you are for Durkheim deals with the culture that you were exposed to as a child. Human nature does not matter what matters is what he calls social forces or social factors. Social fact- general throughout a given society, external to the individual and constraining upon the individual. They exist above and beyond the individual. o The code of ethics existing in an occupation o The language that people employ. He believes there is a realm of social phenomenon that exists beyond the individual. He dismisses psychological claims that explain suicide.
II. The Cult of the Individual as the Result of Social Forces Individual natural rights are socially constructed; they are not a product of nature.
III. Suicide in the Context of Durkheims Evolutionary Scheme Durkheim tried to explain social evolution. Mechanical Solidarity o No division of Labor o The content of peoples brains would have been very similar. Organic Solidarity o What causes the division of labor is a function of social facts. o Durkheim believes that it is population growth that leads to division of labor. o Its when you get a lot of people that people must look for particular tasks. o He does not agree with Smith on how division of labor comes from the human nature to truck, barter and exchange.
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Too little integration and to little regulation causes suicide. This goes along with the extremes of Mechanical Solidarity and Organic Solidarity.
IV. Egoistic Suicide Religious Society, Domestic Society, and Political Society Too little integration causes Egoistic Suicide. People who are not socially integrated commit egoistic suicide. Protestants are more likely to commit suicide. (Religious Society) People who are married are more integrated than single people. (Domestic Society) There is less suicide in times of war. (Political Society) These all have to do with integration.