Emile Durkheim, Essay Example

Emile Durkheim is believed to be one of the most prominent figures, who made their significant contribution to the foundation and development of modern sociology and the theory of structural functionalism. Emile Durkheim used to reject reductionist arguments, thus concentrating on the social facts, social structures, cultural values and norms, which are external as they refer to individual. He also contributed towards the study of suicide, thus defining the four different types of suicide and supporting his theory of nonmaterial social changes causing differences in suicide rates. Emile Durkheim is also best known for his macro-level perceptions of social reality and its ties into the individual level formation, thus he proved to be a sociologist, who played a major role in the development of structural functionalism and sociology. Furthermore, he was one of the major contributors to the theories of education and morality.

Emile Durkheim viewed the educational systems as the reflections of principal changes in society, for the systems are a structure developed by society, which initially looks for the ways of reproducing its collectively held values, norms, beliefs, and conditions in its institutions and facilities. Consequently, educational systems appear to contain the imprint of past stages in the development of society, as each epoch leaves its indentation on the system. As these imprints are uncovered and analyzed, the development of a society can be reconstructed with the help of educational system. Thus, the educational system is the mirror of society on a miniature scale. According to Emile Durkheim, the educational system is constructed by society through changes, in order to articulate their needs. Durkheim wrote: “It is necessary that we never lose sight of what is the aim of public education. It is not a matter of training workers for the factory or accountants for the warehouse, but citizens for society.”(Walford and Pickering, 20) Consequently, the educational system is constructed by the members of society to manifest and reproduce its ideal perception of a human being as a part of this society. As it follows, the educational system appears to be a ‘constraint’, which is an ambiguous notion used by Durkheim for “cultural determination, in the acceptance of the ambient scale of values by adolescents growing up in a culture.”(Hamilton, 60) At this point Durkheim perceives educational system as a constraint, when the ideas and values provided by society are internalized by individuals who in that way obtain certain beliefs, feelings, and wants, thus acting in a particular way.

“Socialization, then, not private self-expression, is the aim of education, and socializing individuals is a moral endeavor.”(Walford and Pickering, 20) In the view of Emile Durkheim, education shapes social beings through the incorporation of certain shared moral traditions, ideas, and practices. Durkheim was sure that there were certain principles, which were common to all members of the society. For Durkheim, the whole system of education was a moral task. Durkheim argued the fact that education is amoral, thus claiming that it conveys the facts about how things should be, which are normative and closely related with morality. Morality is not based on the domain of public facts for public consumption, but it is a private matter of each and every individual. Durkheim believed that education can at most only clarify students’ believes, which they already had obtained. “Durkheim’s idea on public education was one that embraced moral individualism and can be seen as one of the best examples that we have of democratic education.”(Pickering, 111) Durkheim discarded the very idea of amoral education, thus implying that morality was the major aspect of education. Durkheim based his perception of education on common beliefs of society’s members, which determine the ideal for individual’s development. He believed there was a set of fundamental beliefs, which were common among all stratum of society in order to allow their manifestation, thus it sometimes takes somewhat different form to suit the nature of the institution. The system of education is a product of collective, but not individual thought, for it is derived from the common beliefs of the members of the society. Thus, it represents the values expressed by the conscious collective thought, being a reproduction of collectivity. Consequently, the change of the values within the society is reflected on the educational system.

As a result of Durkheim’s profound and ultimate interest in social morality and moral crisis, he was highly interested in the structure and foundation of moral in the society. In order to fight the crisis of morality, Durkheim suggested to challenging moral disorder within modern society. He encouraged people to unite and proclaim aloud their thoughts, thus making an attempt to defeat public madness and moral crisis. Eventually, the social perception f morality changes and less people tend to envision it and believe in it. Each and every member of the society associates himself with high and moral creature of the universe, but in fact being wild and selfish ‘animals’ at the first place. Durkheim claimed that morality was constantly being violated and misunderstood, and society to be amoral in the terms of performing amoral actions in the name of morality. These amoral actions could be killing each other in the name of God or country, stealing the name of preservation, or even practicing genocide. Durkheim was trying to apply the scientific method to morality, but he faced certain difficulties, for it contained a strong factor of the ‘ought’. Consequently, Durkheim claimed: “The ‘is’ must always be dissociated from the ‘ought’, that is, what people actually do in the realm of moral behavior must be rigidly differentiated from what they ought to do.”(Durkheim et al. 7)

Emile Durkheim defined moral act as one conforming to a moral rule in the society. Durkheim based his definition and perception of morality and moral act in particular on certain examples, like rules prohibiting murder, theft, incest, and those requiring the positive accomplishment of duty such as a civic duty to serve in the army. Durkheim differentiated between morality and utilitarianism, claiming that morality in the society is a sum total of its moral rules, thus being different from the concept of utilitarianism, which can be expressed in a single formula. Moreover, Durkheim’s perception of morality also covers individuals who comply with such rules and particular consequences that emerge as a result. He drew a distinct line between the moral and utilitarian rules, in terms of sanction following the violation of these rules. For example, anybody who violates utilitarian rule, like rule of hygiene, is punished by the intrinsic consequence of his act, like resulting disease. On the other hand, Durkheim suggested that violating the moral rule cannot be foreseen from the intrinsic nature of the violation and sanction. For example, the society punishes murder only for failure to comply with the moral rule. According to Durkheim, the moral rule educes the idea of duty within people, for it possess the authority, thus constraining and imposing from the outside. Therefore, each and every member of the society performs his/her own duty because it is right, and not because it gives any benefits. Assessing the extent of morality in a certain action Durkheim claimed: “To the extent that he hesitates and calculates the advantages and disadvantages of the action to himself or to the extent that he complies to escape punishment, to that extent the action ceases to be moral.”(Rhoads, 161) Consequently, submission to a certain rule causes the regularity of conduct as a result. Thus, moral actions become habitual and are performed every single day. However, Durkheim did not mean moral rules and morality to be pointless, thus he claimed that they tend to an end, in order to achieve a certain goal. “An action can be a means toward some end of the actor himself, or a means toward an end of other beings.”(Rhoads, 161) In Durkheim’s perception, the morality of any action aimed at deriving any benefits to the actor was categorically denied.

All in all, Emile Durkheim has made a significant contribution to the development of modern sociology and the theory or structural functionalism. Apart from these contributions, he has also succeeded in defining the educational system and the conceptual theory of morality, in their close relation to contemporary society. Durkheim found education to replicate the underlying changes in the society, thus making educational systems as a window into society’s past and present values and beliefs. He has also defined morality and moral crisis within the society in terms of moral rules, thus bounding together authority, duty, discipline.

Works Cited

Hamilton, Peter. Emile Durkheim: Critical Assessments. Routledge, 1990.

Walford, Geoffrey, and W. Pickering. Durkheim and Modern Education. Routledge, 1998.

Pickering, W. S. F. Durkheim Today. Berghahn Books, 2002.

Durkheim, Emile, Pickering, W., and H. Sutcliffe. Durkheim: Essays on Morals and Education. Taylor & Francis, 2005.

Rhoads, John. Critical issues in social theory. Penn State Press, 1991.