1 Sociology 101 Important Concepts for Exam 2 Emile Durkheim Biography of Emile Durkheim:Durkheim was a French social theorist who was born in the Lorraine region of France in 1858 and died in 1917. Along with Marx and Weber, he is considered one of the founding fathers of sociology. He is noted for having been the first person to teach a course in sociology at a French university and for later editing one of the first academic journals of sociology, theL'Annee Sociologique. His most noted works areThe Division of Labor in Society,The Rules of Sociological Method,Suicide andElementary Forms of Religious Life. Social Facts:Durkheim argued that social facts exist as objective phenomena which are external to and independent of individual consciousness. Social facts are collective and operate by constraining or coercing individual thought and action. Durkheim distinguished betweenMaterial Social Factswhich take a material form in the external social world (e.g., architecture) andNon- Material Social Factswhich are external and coercive, but which do not take a material form; they are nonmaterial (e.g., norms and values). Durkheim’s Theory of Human Nature:Durkheim argued that humans are social, that they are naturally passionate and unstable and have insatiable wants and desires. These passions and desires need to be controlled. Society provides this control in the form of norms and values, laws and regulations. Durkheim’s Theory of Progress:Durkheim believed that societies naturally develop or evolve through a series stages, each of which exhibits a different form of social solidarity.Social Solidarityis the form of social integration or cohesion (i.e., the “glue”)--which may vary by type of society and stage of social development--that holds a society together. This process is driven by an increase in Dynamic Density, or rate of social interaction, brought on by population increase and the contact between previously isolated societies resulting from improvements in transportation and communication. Durkheim discussed two primary forms of social solidarity: Mechanical Solidarity:The form of social solidarity characteristic of less advanced societies which exhibit a limited division of labor. Durkheim argues that such societies are held together by similarities between individuals, particularly the shared beliefs and moral attitudes which Durkheim labeledThe Collective Conscience. Organic Solidarity:The form of social solidarity characteristic of advanced societies which is based upon complementary differences and mutual dependencies associated with a complex division of labor. The Transition from Repressive Law to Restitutive Law:Durkheim argues that one indicator of the shift from Mechanical to Organic solidarity is the transition from repressive to restitutive law.
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