Émile Durkheim Criticism
Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) was a pioneering French sociologist, renowned for establishing sociology as a rigorous scientific discipline distinct from psychology and philosophy. He proposed that society is a complex entity shaped by collective behaviors and social facts, which exert coercive power over individuals. His significant contributions include the concept of social facts and the development of theories such as mechanical and organic solidarity. Durkheim's work is fundamental to understanding the structure and function of social institutions, as seen in his seminal study The Division of Labor in Society, where he differentiates between preindustrial and industrial societies through the concepts of mechanical and organic solidarity, as elaborated in Julius Stone's analysis.
Durkheim's biographical journey reflects his academic rigor and influence. Born in Epinal, France, to a family of rabbis, his early religious education informed his later scholarly pursuits. Educated at the École Normale Supérieure and influenced by philosophers and historians, Durkheim engaged with German psychology before returning to France to teach. His appointment at the University of Bordeaux and later the University of Paris cemented his status, and he founded the influential journal L'Année sociologique.
His major works span various social phenomena. In Le Suicide, Durkheim used empirical methods to explore types of suicide, a study further analyzed by Bruce P. Dohrenwend. Les règles de la méthode sociologique laid out his positivistic approach, asserting sociology's empirical nature. His examination of religion in Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse suggested that religious symbols, like totems, embody social structures, a theory critiqued by various scholars including Goldenweiser and P. M. Worsley. Throughout his career, Durkheim also focused on education’s role in societal development, influencing future studies and policies as discussed by Harry Alpert.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Essays
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Les formes elementaires de la vie religieuse
(summary)
In the following review of Les formes elementaires de la vie religieuse, originally published in American Anthropologist in 1915, Goldenweiser refutes all of Durkheim's 'cardinal doctrines' discussed in the work.
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The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
(summary)
In the following mixed review of The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, the critic, while praising Durkheim's methods for their brilliance and originality, questions the validity of his conclusion that all forms of religion have the same totemistic, rather than naturalistic or animistic, origins.
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George Simpson (essay date 1933)
(summary)
Simpson is an American professor, translator, and author who specializes in field work on religious cults in the Caribbean and religious sects in South America, the United States, Canada, and England. In the following essay, he analyzes Durkheim's social realism and the validity of his positivistic methodology in the study of society.
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On the Division of Labor in Society
(summary)
An English-born educator and author, Stone assesses the development of Durkheim's theories on the role of law in society, emphasizing the transition from 'mechanical solidarity' in undeveloped societies to 'organic solidarity' in advanced societies, highlighting the importance of differentiation of functions in social life.
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Review of De la division du travail social
(summary)
Merton is a leading American social theorist, educator, and author of the popular Social Theory and Social Structure (1949). In the following review of De la division du travail social, he identifies some flaws in Durkheim's methods.
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The Structure of Social Action
(summary)
Parsons examines Durkheim's theory of suicide and compares it with the conceptual framework employed in On the Division of Labor in Society.
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Durkheim's Theory of the Function of Ritual
(summary)
In the following essay, originally published in 1938 in the journal Sociology and Social Research, Alpert explains Durkheim's theory of the function of ritual in Book III of his Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse.
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Emile Benoit-Smullyan (essay date 1948)
(summary)
In the following essay, he discusses the origins and development of Durkheim's sociologism.
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Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Worsley draws from recent ethnographic evidence to reassess Durkheim's theory of knowledge, as exemplified by his study of totemism among aboriginal tribes in his Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.
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Themes in Durkheim's Work
(summary)
Schnore identifies three dominant themes in Durkheim's work, explicates his theories, and faults earlier critics for misrepresenting his methods and conclusions.
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Emile Durkheim: Pioneer of Sociology
(summary)
In the following essay, Alpert lauds Durkheim's establishment of and contribution to the social sciences.
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Conceptual Analysis of Durkheim's Four Types of Suicide
(summary)
In the following essay, Dohrenwend provides a conceptual analysis of Durkheim's four types of suicide.
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The Importance of History to Durkheim's Comparative Method
(summary)
The following essay discusses the importance of history to Durkheim's comparative method, emphasizing that history was central to Durkheim's sociological work and that a full appreciation of his contributions to sociology requires understanding this relationship.
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Durkheim's Conception of Socialism
(summary)
In the following essay, Giddens discusses Durkheim's conception of socialism and its current value in his political writings. He argues that Durkheim's analysis of socialism contains ideas that are a stimulus to reflection about contemporary political problems, despite his critical view of Durkheim's overall influence on sociology.
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David Lockwood (essay date 1982)
(summary)
In the following essay, he discusses Durkheim's concept of fatalism and why it "remains Durkheim's hidden theory of order." The significance of Durkheim's concept of fatalism in Suicide is wholly unappreciated. The aim of this essay is to show that hidden in the concept of fatalism there is indeed such a theory, though it bears little resemblance to what is taken to be Durkheim's major contribution to the analysis of social integration.
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Les formes elementaires de la vie religieuse
(summary)
- Further Reading