Emile Durkheim

• Who was Emile Durkheim?


  French sociologist and psychologist (1858-1917).

  He was one of the main figures in the development of social science.
• What is Durkheim’s view of conscience?


  • He brings together both God and the conscience into a SOCIAL explanation of human behaviour.
  • He argued that conscience is social conditioning - the sanctions that the group brings to bear on the individual.
  • For him, God is society, God does not exist but is a useful idea. God is a projection of society‘s powers, and a belief in God gives individuals a moral obligation to obey society‘s demands.
  • When projected onto an omnipotent God, society’s demands become unconditional, because to disobey them is to obey the will of God.
• How does Durkheim‘s view of God and society relate to conscience?


  • Conscience is, therefore, a perception of loyalty to the group.
  • So, for example, having a guilty conscience about the food you eat is your fear of society judging you for being toof at or thin.
  • To say that someone has no conscience is simply to say that they are socially maladjusted.
• Durkheim also put froward the idea of a collective conscience. What is a collective conscience?


  • (or collective consciousness) - THE TOTALITY OF BELIEFS & SENTIMENTS COMMON TO THE AVERAGE CITIZENS IN THE SAME SOCIETY.
  • In other words, conscience is organic to the social group as a whole. Within this context, an act is socially bad simply because society disapproves of it: it is not that an action conflicts with the common conscience because it is criminal, but rather it’s criminal because it conflicts with the common conscience.
• What is good about collective conscience?


  Groups can improve their survivability by individuals having a conscience that compels them to maintain group loyalty.