Durkheim

Well it looks like I'm a little behind, so I've got some catching up to do. To start off, I'm going to list everything I know about Durkheim generically. I'll elaborate further on the outline I've created soon. I find topic of suicide particularly interesting.

Emile Durkheim

Durkheim was a capitalist who observed religion in society. He believed that “Religion is the glue that holds society together. He is known as the father of Sociology and he had some big shoes to fill being the first man to attempt to explain the entire world.

His Beliefs

• Sui Generis – an anticipated consequence of human agency; society has properties that an individual does not have.

• Mechanical Solidarity – Social structure is based on the individuals’ similarities and is dependent on rituals and traditions (Old school society before any type of industrial revolution).

• Organic Solidarity – is based on the interdependence of individuals in industrialized societies. People rely on one another to survive like a symbiotic organism.

• This largely depends on the complex division of labor, which stemmed from the industrial revolution. Everyone has a place in society. There will always be janitors and low men on the totem pole.

• Social Facts – are pre-existing conditions of human agency that exist outside individuals. They are constraints of individual behaviors as they are the ways of acting and thinking (ex. The Bible).

• Division of Labor – the separation and specialization of society.
• Societal means of coping with extensive social transformations.

• Integration – Society’s ability to make its members into its functional parts through making the system of norms, values, and beliefs known and unified to all.
• A basic common way of thinking bonds people and gives them a place in society.

• Religion – The means for providing the meaning of life, unity, structure and control.

• Anomie – A condition where social and/or moral norms are confused, unclear, or simply not present.
• A lack of norms leads to deviant behaviors.
• Durkheim believed industrialization promoted anomie.

• Anomie is some serious stuff. It can lead to suicide because people need to feel integrated.

• Suicide – can result from too much integration or anomie.

• Types of Suicide:

• Egoistic Suicide – comes from too little integration.

• Altruistic Suicide – comes from too much integration (Ex. suicide bombers).

• Anomic Suicide – comes from the breaking down of norms (loosing in faith in what you believe).