Emile Durkheim

• Conscience is a 'social conditioning'
• God is society - does not exist but is a useful idea 


  God a projection of society's powers and a belief in him gives individuals a moral obligation to obey society's commands
• Conscience a perception of loyalty to the group
• To say someone has no conscience is to say they are socially maladjusted
• The Collective Conscience

  • the totality of beliefs common to the average citizens in the same society
  • An act is 'bad' because society disapproves of it
  • Conscience is a survival mechanism for developed through people adhering to shared moral values