The core problem of sociology

Let me introduce you to the French school of sociology (also called Durkheim school) ... for your reference.

Durkheim in Emile Durkheim (1858- 19 17) is also called Durkheim. French sociologist and one of the founders of sociology.

Life and Works1April 858 15 was born in a small town in Pinard, Vogel province. I studied Hebrew, the Old Testament and Talmud when I was a child. When I was young, I gave up my religious belief and embarked on the road of empirical science. 1879, studied at Paris Teachers College and graduated from 1882. 1882 ~ 1887, teaching in provincial middle schools. In the meantime, I went to Germany to study pedagogy, philosophy and ethics for one year, and was deeply influenced by W. Feng Te's experimental psychology. From 1887 to 1902, he taught at the University of Bordeaux, where he founded the first department of pedagogy and sociology in France. 189 1 was appointed as the first sociology professor in France. 1898, the French sociological yearbook was founded. Around this publication, a group of young sociologists-French sociological yearbook school has formed. 1902, taught at the University of Paris. The first world war interrupted the anti-war scholar's academic research, and his son and many students died in the battlefield, which greatly stimulated him. 19171kloc-0/.5438+0.05 died in Paris. His main works are: Social Division of Labor (1893), Rules of Sociological Methods (1895), Suicide Theory (1897) and Basic Forms of Religious Life (19/kloc-0).

The object and method of sociology Durkheim established an independent research object for sociology, which is different from philosophy, physiology and psychology, namely social facts. Social facts have different characteristics and special determinants from natural phenomena and physiological phenomena. It exists before individual life and lasts longer than individual life. Its existence does not depend on individuals, but is caused by social facts in advance. The external form of social facts "forces" and acts on people, shaping people's consciousness. This "coercion" not only means that people can't get rid of its influence, but also means that they will be punished for refusing to obey certain social rules. Durkheim believes that all social concepts have this compulsion; Most human intentions are not produced by individuals themselves, but are formed under the guidance, edification and oppression of the outside world. Society is superior to individuals, and social facts cannot be explained by the methods of studying individuals such as physiology and individual psychology, but must be explained by sociological methods and viewpoints. He said that religion, morality, law, societies, associations, languages and dress styles are all social phenomena, and they are all specific research objects of sociology. He also divided social facts into "the state of movement" and "the state of existence", the former refers to the phenomenon related to ideology, also known as "group consciousness"; The latter is a social problem.

Cut organizational and physical settings. Durkheim focused on the former.

Division of labor and social order are the themes of Durkheim's academic research all his life. /kloc-in the second half of the 0/9th century, French society was in turmoil. He is committed to answering practical questions as a sociologist and helping the society to maintain integration and achieve stability. His three major works, Social Division of Labor, Suicide and Basic Forms of Religious Life, all focus on the theme of order and integration, and answer three questions respectively: how to achieve social unity and integration, what is the relationship between social integration and individuals, and what role group consciousness plays on society and individuals.

Durkheim believes that the society ruled by traditional forces is maintained by "mechanical unity". Especially in an uncivilized society, members of the same group adopt the same means of making a living, maintain the same customs and believe in the same totem. This kind of homosexuality makes them realize that everyone belongs to a collective and will not be centrifugal. This group is basically a society produced by "similarity", which is the so-called "homogeneous" society. The primary task of a group is to make its members respect the beliefs and traditions of the group, that is, to maintain a sense of identity and consistency. In modern society, due to the development of social division of labor, people's differences in consciousness and beliefs are getting bigger and bigger. However, society has not disintegrated and people have not separated. This is because the sense of identity that maintained the group in ancient times was gradually replaced by the system of division of labor, and the social division of labor made everyone rely on others in consumption. Division of labor makes society like an organism, and each member serves the whole society, but at the same time, it cannot be separated from the whole. Division of labor is like a social bond, so it is called "organic solidarity". Durkheim believes that the more progress a country makes, the greater the differences among its members. This trend is even reflected in physical fitness. Judging from the brain capacity, the brain capacity of the same animal is small, but the brain capacity of human is large; As far as human beings are concerned, their brains are closer to those of civilized people than those of indigenous people. The internal differences of civilized people in other aspects (such as clothes and ideas) are also significant. Therefore, the modern society is a different society, a organic solidarity society.

Durkheim denied that social division of labor was created to create more wealth. He emphasized that the function of a thing is not the cause of this thing, but the cause precedes the function. Division of labor can improve efficiency and increase wealth, but it can only be shown in the comparison before and after division of labor. He believes that the reason for the division of labor is the high population density. The increase in population initially forced some people to move to other places. When they were in no way back, they were forced to change their industries, and the division of labor system followed. He attaches importance to the function of studying social facts and is one of the pioneers of functional theory. At the same time, in methodology, emphasizing the distinction between function and reason is of great significance to the perfection of functionalism.

Durkheim also criticized the * * * identity consciousness in the traditional society in his early work "On Social Division of Labor", believing that this * * * identity belief is close to religion, mandatory and permeates all social life. He predicted that the function of maintaining society with consciousness and religion would be gradually replaced by the system of division of labor. In the mature period, Durkheim continued to study the integration of human society, abandoned the idea of belittling the consciousness of * * * in the theory of social division of labor, and instead emphasized the social role of * * * consciousness and religion.

Suicide Theory In the book Suicide Theory, Durkheim tried to explain the cause of suicide from the relationship between society and individuals. He divided suicide into four types, namely, selfish suicide, altruistic suicide, anomie suicide and fatalism suicide. People think that egoistic suicide is the result of extreme individualism. A social person must take the society he serves as the premise of his life, and he needs a life goal and meaning higher than himself. For example, the life goal of believers is religious belief. The development of individualism in modern western countries has separated individuals from family, religion and society, making some people feel empty and lose their goals. Durkheim pointed out that egoistic suicides mostly occur among Christians, freelancers, unmarried and divorced people. Egoistic suicide is inversely proportional to the degree of social integration. Judaism, Catholicism and Anglican Catholicism all have strong integration power, while Protestantism lacks compulsion in stipulating believers' life goals; Singles and divorcees have less obligations than those with families; From these people out of social obligations and constraints, there are more suicides.

Altruistic suicide is due to excessive submission to a social goal and significance and too close integration into society, so that individuals lose their autonomy. Durkheim used the European army as an example to illustrate altruistic suicide. In the army, soldiers are trained not to value their own value, which makes them feel strangled by a kind of "social value", lose themselves and lose the joy of life, so the suicide rate of soldiers is higher than that of ordinary people.

Anomie suicide is caused by social chaos, and the behavior of social members has lost its norms and increased the pain. Durkheim believes that the imbalance between desire and the means to satisfy desire is the root of all biological suffering. The physiological mechanism of animals defines the boundaries of their desires, while human desires are endless. The more he has, the more he wants, and the unsatisfied needs inspire new desires. People will feel satisfied and happy only when their desires are limited, and the limits of desires can only come from society. Society has formed a hierarchical order. No matter whether this order is based on heredity or personal achievements, the order in a normal society is always accepted by most members. When a member of society thinks that this hierarchical principle is reasonable and he should be in a certain class, he readily accepts the restrictions given to him by that class, and it is possible to balance desire and means. When the society is in turmoil and changes, people lose all kinds of order and norms, their desires and means are uncoordinated, and their behavior is chaotic and unrestrained, causing all kinds of pain and leading to an increase in suicide rate. Durkheim regarded the suicide of businessmen in the economic crisis as an example of this type.

Fatal suicide is due to excessive social control, and individuals lose any hope. Durkheim believes that this type of suicide is not common in modern society, and he did not discuss it in detail. Durkheim summed up his suicide research and put forward three propositions: social people need a social goal higher than individuals; The obligation to this goal will not make him lose his autonomy; His desire should be restricted by social order to some extent. On the cause of suicide, Durkheim did not completely deny personal physiological factors, but considered it secondary and social reasons were the main ones. He believes that when a society cannot provide the above three conditions, some psychologically fragile individuals may commit suicide.

Religion and Sociology of Knowledge The object of Durkheim's religious research is the totem worship among primitive tribes in Australia, but his research purpose is to "understand people today", explain the social function of religion, and explain the necessity of a sense of * * * for the establishment of social order.

Durkheim criticized two early anthropologists' explanations of the origin of religion: animism and nature worship. He said that this explanation cannot explain why religion can continue to this day after the misunderstanding of natural and physiological phenomena has exposed flaws. He believes that religion does not give people a description of the material world, but serves the society. Totem is the symbol and flag of a nation, and the principle of totem is the nation itself. People worship totems, which is actually the group they belong to. Totem is a symbol of a group, just as the national flag is to a modern country. "Sacredness" has always been the key to explain religion. Durkheim believes that the sanctity of religion comes from society, and it is just a materialized and personalized group power, that is, moral power. He believes that social forces act on individuals in a psychological way, forcing people to obey it, even against people's natural tendency. People think that this kind of power that exists outside the body is both mandatory and dependent. They are in awe of it, but they can't fully understand its essence and source, so some ideas have sprouted to symbolize these forces, and these ideas are religion. The function of these sacred symbols (that is, religions) is not only to help people feel the existence of social entities, but also to maintain society and promote social integration. Durkheim believes that the unity of the Australian nation does not come from the same ancestry and customs, but from the same name, symbol and ceremony, that is, the same totem worship. Without totem, the symbol of the nation, the nation cannot exist. He believes that religious symbols strengthen the subordinate relationship between individuals and society with their prominent sacred colors. Society has no such thing for individuals as God has for its admirers.

Without supreme holiness, there is no social life. Durkheim analyzed all kinds of rituals in primitive religion and thought that they played a role in maintaining and integrating society. He pointed out that not only the primitive society needs this function of religion, "every aspect of social life and every historical period depends on a huge symbol system." This is the biggest change in his thoughts in his later years.

While explaining the origin of religion, Durkheim also established his own sociology of knowledge. "Group consciousness" and "group representation" are both the key to his explanation of the origin of religion and the core concepts of his sociology of knowledge. He believes that all feelings come from individual experience, and all rationality is not innate and transcendental, but belongs to "group representation", "group consciousness" and group life. Rationality is divided into concepts and categories in thinking and morality and religion in ethics. These all come from group life, not from individual psychological mechanism. In the completely lonely personal existence, in order to meet the physiological needs, feeling is enough, and the concepts of time and space have not been formed. In animal-like individual life, objective time and space have not disappeared, but they can't grasp the concept of time and space as a category of thinking. Only group life needs to form concepts, categories and categories. Durkheim does not deny the objective reality reflected by "category" and "concept", but only emphasizes that it is impossible and unnecessary to understand these realities without group life. Therefore, he believes that a moral thought cannot be reduced to utilitarian purpose, and reason cannot be reduced to personal experience.

Academic Contribution Durkheim proposed taking social facts as the research object of sociology, expounded the structure, function and causality of social facts, formulated a series of empirical rules of sociological research, enriched the concept of positivistic sociology initiated by A. Comte, and made the sociological methodology substantive. His research on suicide by statistical methods and the religious study of Australian aborigines by anthropological data are examples of the combination of sociological theory and empirical research, thus ending the long-term disconnection between western sociological theory and empirical research. Durkheim's rich and profound sociological thoughts have had a far-reaching impact on the development of sociology.