Main themes of Durkheim’s

writings
Anthony Giddens
The division of labour in
Society
Durkheim is regarded, as one of the founders of
modern 'empirical' sociology: as a writer whose works
played a leading role in the transformation of
sociology from a speculative, philosophical
endeavour into a clearly-bounded discipline firmly
planted in the controlled observation of empirical
reality.
Durkheim's first major work, The Division of Labour
in Society (1893), was conceived as 'an attempt to
treat the facts of moral life according to the method
of the positive sciences'.
The industrialization and urbanization of Western Europe
had great effects on society in a number of different
ways.

One of the most important effects was the rise of

individualism and the importance of the individual within
Western society, which took place on different levels.

With the division of labor, there was a specialization of

tasks, which gave the individual more freedom to develop
their work.
Individual autonomy increased, since the rest of society
was less and less capable of telling the individual how to
do the work.

At the same time city life was characterized by fewer and

weaker intimate relationships and greater anonymity,
which granted greater personal freedoms.

The individual felt in a real way less acted upon by

society and there were fewer and fewer collective
experiences shared by all members of the group
Durkheim opposed the social contract theorists.
Durkheim strove to show that, collective life is not
born from the individual, but, rather, that the
individual is born out of collective life.
Societies before division of
labour
The unity of such a society is to be found in the fact
that there exists a strongly defined set of values and
beliefs which ensures that the actions of all
individuals conform to common norms. Durkheim
calls this 'mechanical' solidarity, but not with the
implication that such solidarity is in some way
produced artificially by its component individuals.
 Mechanical Solidarity

The term indicates an analogy with simple organisms,

which have a mechanical structure in this sense, such
that each cell is wholly comparable to every other,
and such that a cell or group of cells can split away
without destroying the unity of the parent organism
This dominance of the individual by the collectivity is
indexed by the nature of the punishment which is
meted out when a man deviates from the rigidly
specified codes of conduct which are prescribed by the
conscience collective.

A repressive sanction is a response to the highly

intense emotions which are generated in the majority
of individuals when a man transgresses the ideals
embodied in the conscience collective.
The process of development from traditional to
modern society must therefore have involved a
profound set of institutional changes, which have
fundamentally modified the basis of social unity.
This involves, of course, the progressive displacement
of mechanical by 'organic' solidarity.
 The expansion of the division of labour, which
entails the formation of ties of economic
interdependence between producers, thus implies the
breakdown of the segmental structure.

Thus formerly separate communities become linked

within a single economic system.
The growth of differentiation in the division of labour,
according to Durkheim, functions to reduce the social
conflicts which otherwise tend to arise when two sets
of equivalent producers are in competition for scarce
resources.

Organic solidarity thus consists in the ties of co-

operation between individuals or groups of individuals
which derive from their occupational interdependence
within the differentiated division of labour.
 Theory of Religion

Elementary form of Religious life. 1912. Durkheim's

primary purpose in The Elementary Forms was to
describe and explain the most primitive religion
known to man. "If we have taken primitive religion
as the subject of our research," he insisted, "it is
because it has seemed to us better adapted than any
other to lead to an understanding of the religious
nature of man, that is to say, to show us an essential
and permanent aspect of humanity”.
Durkheim rejects hostility to religion for two reasons:

Durkheim insisted that such hostility was

unscientific; it prejudges the results of the
investigation, and renders its outcome suspect.

Second, and more important, he considered it

unsociological for it is an essential assumption of
sociology that no human institution can rest on an
error or a lie.
why did Durkheim focus on primitive religions in
particular?

Durkheim argued that we cannot understand more

advanced religions except by analyzing the way they
have been progressively constituted throughout
history
In order to describe and explain the most primitive
religion known to man, Durkheim observed, we must
first define the term "religion" itself: otherwise we
risk drawing inferences from beliefs and practices
which have nothing "religious" about them, or of
leaving many religious facts to one side without
understanding their true nature.
He insisted, we must free the mind of all
preconceived ideas of religion, The first of the
prejudicial definitions of religion to be eliminated
by this procedure- the "mysterious," the "unknowable,"
the "supernatural" - whereby religion would be "a sort
of speculation upon all that which evades science or
distinct thought in general”.
The second prejudicial definition rejected by
Durkheim was that based upon the idea of "gods"
 His own definition of
religion
“A religion is a unified system of beliefs and
practices relative to sacred things, that is to say,
things set apart and forbidden–beliefs and practices
which unite in one single moral community called a
Church, all those who adhere to them” Durkheim

There are, thus, three fundamental elements to every

religion: sacred objects, a set of beliefs and
practices, and the existence of a moral community.
Durkheim contrasts the sacred with the notion of
profane, or that which desecrates the sacred and
from which the sacred must be protected, making the
opposition between sacred and profane a central
element of Durkheim’s theory.
Physical objects, such as rocks, feathers, totem polls,
crosses, and so forth, can also become infused with the
force of the collectivity, thereby becoming sacred and
serving as a physical reminder of society’s presence.
Such views on religion allow Durkheim to make the
radical claim that a society’s sacred object is nothing
but the collective forces of the group transfigured.
Religion is society worshipping itself, and through
religion, individuals represent to themselves society
and their relationship to it.
Of great significance to Durkheim’s theory is his insistence on the reality of
these religious phenomena. He argues, the social forces that animate a
society’s religious life are real, and are really felt by the participants. While it
is a mistake for an individual to believe that this power emanates directly
from the sacred object, or is somehow intrinsic to the sacred object, behind
the symbol manifesting the force is a living and concrete reality.
Consequently, all religions are true, at least symbolically, for they express a
power that does exist, the power of society. Religion, religious belief, and the
religious experience cannot, therefore, be dismissed as mere fantasies or
illusions.

https://iep.utm.edu/emile-durkheim/#H4