1.6 Durkheim Flashcards
(9 cards)
What years was Durkheim active?
1858-1917
What was Durkheim’s occupation?
acclaimed sociologist, was often referred to as the ‘father of sociology’
What made Durkheim stand out as a sociologist within the intersection of religion & sociology?
Emile Durkheim curated his own functionalist theory of religion — which argues that religion accommodates unity & preservation of community
What is Durkheim’s famous quote from his book The Elementary Forms of Religious Life?
“A unified system of beliefs and practice relative to sacred things…Beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community calls [for] a church, [whereby all] adhere to [beliefs and practices]”
Briefly explain Durkheim’s analysis of religion
- societies divide the world into sacred & profane (blasphemous)
- ordinary objects can create powerful emotions of respect & awe: the significance of the objects is what they symbolise; they must represent something; these are called ‘totems’ (a representative symbol)
- what the objects represent is the collective conscience — this is a basic set of shared beliefs, norms & values which make social life possible
Explain how Durkheim positioned religion as flexible
- Durkheim was interested in what today has been described as functional equivalents for religion in a fundamentally non-religious or a-religious age
- in other words, he saw religion as one of the forces that create within individuals a sense of moral obligation to adhere to society’s demands
- Durkheim was not concerned with the variety of religious experience of individuals but rather with the communal activity & the communal bonds to which participation in religious activities lead, & was concerned to examine the mechanisms that might serve to shore up a threatened social order
How was Durkheim able to see religion broadly?
- Durkheim studied aboriginal societies & saw their religion to be the most basic: Durkheim called this “Totemism”
- Aboriginal societies divide themselves up into clans; these are similar to large extended families; each of these clans has totem (a representative symbol) which they worship
- these totems represent society & God & so Durkheim drew the conclusion that by these clans worshipping these totems which represent society & God, that society is the key object to religious worship
- the clan & God are one & the same, hence there is no separate entity called God, & thus God does not exist simply by virtue (feature) of religious belief & practice: what does exist is a unified social system which believes it owes its being to God; this belief is expressed in shared rituals, values & identity; it discourages change, & explains phenomena that otherwise make little sense
What are the key quotes from Emile Durkheim’s book *Moral Education”? (1961)
- “Religion is not only a social creation, but is in fact society divinised — it is effectively made into the divine object of worship.”
- “Modern man needs to recognise that he has become dependent on the society to which he has given religious significance. He must discover the rational substitutes for these religious notions that for a long time have served as the vehicle for the most essential moral ideas.”
How does Durkheim lead us to realise more of society?
- Durkheim stated that the deities which men worship together are only projections of the power of society; Durkheim professed that when men celebrate sacred things, they unwittingly celebrate the power of the society to which they give sacred significance
- Durkheim’s was keen to urge people to unite in a civic morality based on the recognition that we are what we are because of society
- society acts within us in order to elevate us; not unlike the way in which the divine spark was said to transform ordinary humans into creature capable of transcending their physical, intellectual & emotional capacity
