Transcript November 3, 2008

Durkheim
The Elementary Forms of the
Religious Life and The Rules of
Sociological Method
How to know what religion is?
• all religions can be compared to each other to
identify “ many elements which are common
to all.”
• all religions share the following elements:
1. Beliefs:
They divide the world into two domains:
• Profane: (every-day objects and events)
• Sacred: (supreme in dignity and power)
2. Rituals
Social practices or manners of acting.
• They involve interdictions, or restrictions.
• They “prescribe how to comport in the
presence of the sacred objects.”
Totemism: The simplest form of religion
• Totemism was studied by ethnologists among
Australian tribes.
• Totem normally consisted in an animal or a
plant which identifies them.
Totem exhibits a moral force
• In relation to totem, things are classified and
given power.
• This extraordinary power compels individual
to act respectfully and out of obligation and is
protected by rules, and rites.
Our ordinary “totems”!
• Our whole social environment seems to us to be
filled with forces which really exist only in our own
minds.
Durkheim’s examples:
• The flag is in itself, is only a piece of cloth.
A sacred symbol
• Canadian flag symbolizes ideals we consider to
be sacred (such as the unity of the country, its
integrity and independence etc.)
Human blood:
• is only an organic liquid
• “but even to-day we cannot see it flowing
without feeling a violent emotion which its
physico-chemical properties cannot explain.”
• The sentiments inspired by these totems are
in no way produced by their physical
characteristics.
• Any object might fulfill this function.
• The sacred character, thus, is not implied in
the intrinsic properties of the totems rather it
is added to them.
Collective representations:
• attribute to the things qualities which do not
exist under any form or to any degree.
• Out of the commonest objects they can make
a most powerful sacred beings.
Totem displays a material force
• The material form of totems represents an
immaterial substance, an energy, force.
• If an individual comes into contact with them
without respecting the proper rules he/she
feels a veritable material force, a shock.
collective representation is in a sense
delirious
• A “state in which the mind adds to the
immediate data given by the senses and
projects its own sentiments and feelings into
things”
• “nearly every collective representation is in a
sense delirious.”
Delirium and ecstacy
• Being “transported into a special world,
entirely different from the one where” we
ordinarily live.
Rituals and the public ceremonies
• Durkheim describes them as the place where
the totems derive their force and meaning.
• The sentiments produced in these ceremonies
resembles an ecstasy which “removes them
(the participants) from their ordinary life.”
O Canada!
• The Canadian anthem is an example of what
we consider as sacred today.
• The respect that it inspires is reinforced by the
everyday ritual of singing it at the schools.
• O Canada
Our home and native land ….
“A state of effervescence”
• “changes the conditions of psychic activity.”
• “Vital energies are over-excited, passions
more active, sensations stronger; there are
even some [totems and sacred believes and
symbols] which are produced only at this
moment.”
• “When arrived at this state of exaltation, a
man does not recognize himself any longer.
Feeling himself dominated and carried away
by some sort of external power.”
• Durkheim concludes that the collective force
of society is “ritualistic”, that is, created in
occasional associations in forms of ceremonies
Transforming the environment
• “In these moments a “man … transforms the
environment which surrounds him”
• “He attributes to the things with which he is in
most direct contact properties which they
have not, exceptional powers and virtues
which the objects of every-day experience do
not possess.”
Symbols are the objectified forces of
collectivity
• “The intense social life cannot endure because
it is an ecstatic experience it can last only a
limited length of time without symbols.”
• “Symbols are necessary if a society is to
become conscious of itself, assuring the
continuation of this consciousness.”
Our trouble today!
• “If we find a little difficulty to-day in imagining
what these feasts and ceremonies of the
future could consist in, it is because we are
going through a stage of transition and moral
mediocrity.”
A state of incertitude and confusion
• the old gods are growing old or already dead,
and others are not yet born.
• “A day will come when our societies will know
again those hours of creative effervescence, in
the course of which new ideas arise and new
formulæ are found which serve for a while as
a guide to humanity”
Human Dignity
• The core value of modern societies: “the
sanctity of human beings.”
• “But a person, from the physical point of view,
differs only in degree from animals.
• Yet society conceives human beings, “as
sacred and worthy of dignity and respect
although we can find nothing in the empirical
nature of man which justifies it. “
Durkheim:
The Rules of Sociological Method
Examples of Social Fact:
•
•
•
•
Duties:
The system of Signs [Language]:
The monetary system:
Social Roles:
• I am not forced to speak French with my
compatriots, nor to use the legal currency, but
it is impossible for me to do otherwise.
• If I tried to escape the necessity, my attempt
would fail miserably.
First Characteristic:
Externality
• These facts exist outside the consciousness of
the individual.
• They existed before I did, [prior in time]
• Are not developed by ourselves, but come to
us from outside [external origin]
• All function independently of the use I make
of them [independence]
Second Characteristic:
Coercive Power (Constraint)
They can only penetrate us by imposing themselves
upon us.
• If I attempt to violate the rules of law and
morality, social conventions, I am restricted by:
• Punishments
• The public conscience
• the laughter
• the social distance
Internalization
If this constraint in time ceases to be felt it is
because it gradually gives rise to habits, to
inner tendencies.
Education of a child
From his earliest years we oblige him to eat,
drink and sleep at regular hours, and to
observe cleanliness, calm and obedience;
later we force him to learn how to be mindful
of others, to respect customs and
conventions, and to work, etc.
Social Institutions and Processes
• Beliefs and practices already well established
and crystallized in well defined social
organizations (social institutions)
• Social 'currents‘ (social processes) such as
crowds, public gatherings, and public opinion
which have the same characteristics of social
facts (i.e. externality and constraint)
A public gathering: Stadium
• Enthusiasm, indignation and pity that are
produced have their seat in no one individual
consciousness
We feel differently when we are alone
• The impression we have experienced is utterly
different from what we would have felt if we
had been alone.
The power of collectivity
• Once the assembly has broken and we are
once more on our own:
• the emotions we have felt seem an alien
phenomenon, one in which we no longer
recognise ourselves.
• Individuals who are normally perfectly
harmless may, when gathered together in a
crowd, let themselves be drawn into acts of
atrocity.
The force of the public opinion
• Certain currents of opinion, impel us, for
example, towards marriage or suicide,
towards higher or lower birth-rates, etc.
• Such currents are plainly social facts.
The Final Definition:
• “A social fact is any way of acting,
whether fixed or not, capable of
exerting over the individual an
external constraint.”
“Social facts must be treated as things”
• imply not a category of reality (i.e., social facts
are not like natural things) but a certain
mental attitude toward them.
What is a “thing”?
• what we know from without [not from
within]….thus cannot be discovered by
introspection, that is, by looking inside one’s
own mind, interests and feelings rather it
requires data from outside.
A state of mind (objectivity)
• The sociologist should assume the state of
mind of the natural scientists, that is:
• 1. He/she should not pretend that he/she
already knows these facts.
• 2. he/she should not rely on the individual’s
motivations in order to explain social facts.
An example
• In the last centuries the family has changed:
• A subjectivist and individualist explanation will
assume that changed occurred because:
• It brings about a happier life for everyone involved,
i.e. “a perfect reconciliation of the interests of
parents, children, and society.”
Sociological Explanation:
• The problem with the above approach is that it
ignores other social structural influences such as
economic changes which have a strong influence on
the family life.
The cause of a social fact must be sought
among antecedent social facts
• We should trace back the causes of the family
change to the state of economy, religion,
culture, etc..
• In the case of family crisis it should be related
to the state of social integration and social
regulation.
Objections to Durkheim
• His definition of social facts conceives:
• 1. individuals as passive subjects
• 2. social life merely as a constraining power
and not as rewarding and enhancing power.
Durkheim’s response:
•
1. Society is composed of individuals, and
individuals are the only active elements therein.
•
Yet “society is not the mere sum of individuals”
•
“by aggregating together… individuals give birth to
a being …which constitute a psychical individuality
of a new kind.”
“society is not the mere sum of individuals”
• For instance water is composed of two active
elements: Hydrogen (H) and Oxygen (O). When they
are associated in a certain combination (H2O) they
produce something which is totally different from
the original elements.
2. “the goodness” of social facts
•
•
•
He says that it is true that social facts:
“..we love them.. we cling to them…we find our
welfare in them”
Yet “the good is some what more subjective, more
intimate than duty, less easily grasped [this is why,
Durkheim explains, “we have not previously
described social facts in terms of [them]
Human nature and social life
• Durkheim admits that “it is clear that the
general characteristics of human nature
(sympathy and sociability for instance) play
their part” in creating social life.
“Human nature” is mostly a social
construction
• However, he adds, there is no proof that “the
tendency to sociability was originally a
congenital instinct of the human race. It is
much more natural to see in it a product of
social life.”
A concluding note:
• You should, however, note that not all
sociologists share Durkheim’s belief that an
internal moral power (conscience), or
consciousness (the subjective interpretation
of meanings), are not distinctive
characteristics of human action.