Emile Durkheim: Biography, Theory, and Facts - Essay Example

?Sociologist: Emile Durkheim “Man's characteristic privilege is that the bond he accepts is not physical but moral; that is, social. He is governed not by a material environment brutally imposed on him, but by a conscience superior to his own, the superiority of which he feels. Because the greater, better part of his existence transcends the body, he escapes the body's yoke, but is subject to that of society.” - Emile Durkheim I have come to discover Emile Durkheim, a German Sociologist and Theorist, upon studying the founding of sociology. Durkheim is one of the principal architects of sociology along with other prominent names in the subject, Karl Marx and Max Weber. He is also regarded as a father of sociology for institutionalizing and the first professor of social science in France. Durkheim had significant contributions with the establishment of sociology particularly the combination of empirical research with sociological theory. He had also addressed topics such as study of suicide, sociological theory of religion, and refining positivism. Early Age. Durkheim was from a family of French Jews and grew up in Epinal, Lorraine. He was born on April 15, 1858. His great grandfather, grandfather, and his father were all rabbis (Calhoun, 2002). His father, Moise, was also Chief Rabbi of the Vosges and Haute-Marne. Although destined for rabbinate, he was the one who broke the rabbinical chain in their family by living in secular life particularly when he arrived in Paris. At an early age he switched school, from rabbinical school to academic ones. Although he had close relationship with his family, relation, Jewish community especially the Alsace-Lorraine community, he did not follow Jewish traditions. (Poggi, 2000) Durkheim had successfully entered in Ecole Normale Superieure, one of the most prestigious mainstream public universities in France, in his third attempt. Their batch at Ecole was regarded as one of the most brilliant batches in the nineteenth century. He was in batch with the known socialist Jean Jaures, who became his long-time friend, along with philosophers Henri Bergson, Bustave Belot, Edmond Goblot, Felix Rauh, and Maurice BlondelHenri Bergson, Bustave Belot, Edmond Goblot, Felix Rauh, and Maurice Blondel, also with Pierre Janet, a psychologist, historians Henri Berr and Camille Jullian, geographer Lucien Gallois, and Ferdinand Brunot, a linguist. Details of his historical account described Durkheim to be pessimistic yet he was always part of the intellectual philosophical debates and political discussions. Eventually he became a strong advocate of the republican cause (Calhoun, 2002). At Ecole, Durkheim had studied under the supervision of Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges, who was notable for his social scientific perspective and a purist. Aside from the influence of Coulanges to Durkehiem, his readings of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer’s works were credited that influenced him to be exposed with social science at an early age. He then became very interested with the scientific approach to society. This influence also reflected from his academic performance. It was cited that Durkheim was initially interested in humanistic studies, psychology, and philosophy but eventually had shifted his interest in ethics and early scope of sociology. With his aggregation in Philosophy, he had graduated in 1882. Academic Performance. Durkheim is regarded as an advance student during his studies at Ecole. He was included as one of the brightest in his batch. During his studies, he was less of political and more of academics by orientation. Later on, he developed inclination in scientific studies than academics, leading him to criticize the scholastic structure of Ecole. In 1885, he went to Germany to pursue his focus study in sociology at Marburg, Berlin and Leipzig. (Calhoun, 2002) Journey to Sociology. One of the contributions of Durkheim to sociology is the empirical method in sociological research. In his personal essays, he revealed that he had appreciated the value of the empiricism during his studies in Leipzig. He has learned the language of concrete and composite nature of things (Calhoun, 2002). In his stay in Germany, Durkheim had published several publications about social science in German and philosophy. Through this, he had gained recognition in France and an invitation to teach in University in Bordeaux in 1887. In Bordeaux, he had taught the first social science course in university. It was considered a milestone in the history of the sociology with the appointment of a social scientist to the pool of faculty whose specialization was humanities. Upon the emergence and recognition of social science in the scholastic core was considered a strong sign of educational revolution then. At that point, Durkheim had assisted restructuring the French scholastic system by introducing the social science in its curriculum. Observing politics around him, he began to get interested in “social phenomena.” His doctoral dissertation in 1892 was about the fundamental statement of the nature of man’s social order and its progress. It was published as The Division of Labour in Society and was considered as a notable ingenious study. In the background of the writing of his dissertation was the Franco-Prussian War, as France’s defeat and was caused the fall of Napoleon III’s rule. It was then replaced by the Third Republic – a system that Durkheim had strongly supported. These accounts had stimulated him politically. In 1894, a political scandal called The Dreyfus Affair that involved treason case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus had fortified Durkheim’s activist standpoint. Pushing his expertise, he had published a manifesto of sociology’s definition and methodology titled, Rules of the Sociological Method, in 1895. He had also founded University of Bordeaux’s first European department of sociology. In 1897, he had written and published a book titled, Suicide. The book is contains an example of sociological monograph. In there, he also introduced the quantitative methods in criminology to support his suicide case study. A year after that, he had founded the L’Annee Sociologique – the first social science journal in France. The journal served as the venue for the works of students and collaborators about sociological program. In Sorbonne, Durkheim was made the chair of education. That was in 1902 and it was commonly regarded that such position was his long-time ambition. Aside from becoming a full time professor of Science of Education, he was also declared Chair of Education and Sociology. Such appointment made his lectures as the only mandatory ones for the whole student body. He had also became the adviser to the Ministry of Education and had influenced the new generation of teachers in Sorbonne. He had written and published his last major work, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. In 1895 through his book, Rules of the Sociological Method, Durkheim had expressed his glowing interest to create a method that would assure sociology’s truly systematic nature. His core perspective upon writing the book was the method of studying an object based on the relationship and relevance of it to the observer. This was answered with observation of a “social fact” to another “social fact.” In implication, sociology should be used with “comparison” to another as perfect objective observation cannot be attained in single precursor. (Collins, 1975) In regards to the social phenomena, Durkheim was one of the first creators in scientific approaches to determine it. He had explained the being and characteristics of diverse components of a society by its function. He had focused his study and works on social facts. Sociological Theory Social Facts. Durkheim’s most famous and controversial theory was that “religion and morality could be explained in terms of purely of social interaction.” To further explain this statement we must consider that Durkheim was apparently secular in his orientation. It can also be credited to his work called, Social Facts. According to his definition, Social fact pertains to the every way of acting of the individual that is general in the given society with its own independent time and own manifestation. Durkheim used the term in order to tell the kind of phenomena that exist for themselves and do not rely to the actions of individuals. He believed that social facts could elucidate the observed social phenomena such as love, freedom, and suicide. Durkheim’s work is prominently about social facts. He explained that social facts have “independent existence greater and more objective than individual and social activities.” In his work, The Rules of Sociological Method, Durkheim had explained that the “determining cause of a social fact must sought among the antecedent social facts and not among the states of the individual consciousness.” (Durkheim, 1964 Ed.) Durkheim had further explained that the phenomena involved in social facts were cannot be lessen biologically or psychologically. Social facts are both material and immaterial. Although most of social facts are not in physical form, the power of force within these immaterial things are the ones being considered. An individual may be controlled or moved by such social facts. Even though the nature of the immaterial aspect of social facts is cannot be seen or touched, its external force contributes to its realism and truthfulness. On the other hand, the material aspect of the social facts could represent both the physical and abstract significance. He had exemplified the flag, a material thing, the meaning of its symbolic representation as its abstract social facts. (Allan, 2005) Suicide. One of the social facts that were cited by Durkheim is suicide. He said that suicide, as a social fact, doesn’t exists within the society but it did exists within itself. Cause of suicide could be of will of an individual – another social fact. This is a concrete example of Durkheim’s explanation of relationship of a social fact to another social fact. The role of social science is to determine the characteristics of each social fact that can be administered through trial or quantitative method. (Calhoun, 2002) In his 1897 published work, Suicide, Durkheim had treated suicide as a social fact due to its large-scale stratum rate. He had studied this by comparing suicide rates occurring in Catholics and Protestants. This had concluded that Catholics have prevailing social control, thus resulted them to have lower suicide rates. This claim eventually found criticisms by later scholars who have studied extensively the subject. Durkheim had acknowledged that most of his data came from Adolph Wagner and Henry Morselli – early researchers of the data in generalized subject. In later years after Durkheim, researchers have conducted a study of Durkheim’s work on suicide and found out that the differences in Catholic and Protestant suicide were only restricted Germans within European premise. They have considered that with such limitation of subject, there is probability that it hamper with other factors, thus the result may vary in other subject. Durkheim’s flawed conclusion was declared as “ecological fallacy” and “logical terror” by those researchers. However, his work on suicide became an introductory phase and support of the study of control theory – a classical study in sociology. Durkheim’s Suicide also became one of the established modern social researches that differentiate sociology to that of psychology and political science. (Poggi, 2002) Religion. Durkheim strongly believed that is the most important fundamental of communal foundation. He said that it was the religion that able to provide the specific idea of collective consciousness. Durkheim’s exact words are “Religion gave birth to all that is essential in the society.” In his work, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Durkheim had cited that religion was the source of comradeship and unity – social facts that are generally present in society. He implied that the work’s primary purpose is to study the source and role of religion. Supporting study was determining the common denominator of certain religions within cultures of countries. He had attempted to gain knowledge of the 1) empirical, and 2) societal phase of religion. (Allan, 2005) Durkheim had defined religion as, “A unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things that is things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.” In the book, he further explained that there were three concepts based on the commonalities of different religions: 1) The sacred, which are the unexplainable ideas and left for spiritual respect; 2) the beliefs and practices, which causes emotional investment for material significance of the adherents; and 3) the moral community, which is a congregational aspect. For Durkheim, the aspect of the sacred is united schemes from the involved people and manifests them on substantial entities. The book was focused on elucidation with the topic of the sacred concept of the religion. Although in the book he stated that “religion gave birth to all that is essential in the society,” in reality he had impressed and emphasized that religion and ethical principles are explainable purely through social interface. This claim had earned him several censures. (Allan, 2005) Personal Stance. Upon studying Durkheim’s sociological theories, there are some points that I agree and some points that I disagree. I agree that in social science, a characteristic of an object or subject can only be determined perfectly if being compared to another similar category of object or subject. We are able to say the right because we have the idea of what is wrong. We are able to distinguish a woman because we know its characteristics as well as we know the characteristics of a man. However, I do not agree with his ultimate claim that religion and morality can be explained simply by social interactions, and the concept of sacred in religion to addressed the unexplainable social facts i.e. spirituality. The thing that Durkheim could not explain that are included in the sacred concept are the nature of god and faith. Even though he did not claim nor stated by any scholars, Durkheim was obviously an agnostic. His claim with his view about religion is surely influenced by his agnosticism. He had issued the three concept of the nature of religion in accordance to his study in order to avoid the discussion of significant role of faith to the presence of a deity in religion which can also be considered a factor that moves people in certain behavior, individually or collectively. Works Cited Allan, Kenneth D. Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social World. Pine Forge Press, November 2, 2005 Calhoun, Craig J. Classical Sociological Theory, Wiley-Blackwell, March 19, 2011 Collins, Randall. 1975. Conflict Sociology: Toward an Explanatory Science, Academic Press, New York, 1975 Durkheim, Emile. The Rules of Sociological Method, 8th Edition, trans. Sarah A. Solovay and John M. Mueller, ed. George E. G. Catlin, 1964 edition Poggi, Gianfranco. Durkheim, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000 Read More