A brief introduction to social determinism

According to different understandings of the role and influence of technology in society, social determinism can be divided into strong social determinism and weak social determinism. Strong social determinism is an extreme expression that only sees and emphasizes the role of society in technological development and thinks that society is the only determinant of technology and its development. Although weak social determinism thinks that technology has influence on society, it also emphasizes that technology is controlled and decided by society. Durkheim, a philosopher, educator and sociologist, is the general tutor of the French sociological yearbook school, which was founded from 19 to the beginning of the 20th century. He, together with Marx and Weber, is also known as the three masters of constructing the building of western contemporary social theory.

Durkheim's social determinism can be traced back to the Scottish Enlightenment theorist adam ferguson. After Aristotle, Ferguson was the first to emphasize that man is a social animal and can only be understood through society. He first proposed that society is as old as individuals, and tongue (language) is as important to people as hands and feet, so it is impossible to understand social determinism propositions such as individuals without studying groups. Morgan also put forward the hypothesis that human society has experienced three stages: ignorance, barbarism and civilization.

Durkheim inherited Ferguson's thought in an all-round way, but emphasized the positivity, standardization and operability of research methods. 1898, he founded the annual journal of sociology called Comparative Sociology. Sociological yearbook popularized the concepts of social determinism such as sacredness, vulgarity, externalization, internalization, primitive classification, totem principle, collective consciousness and collective representation, and formed a far-reaching French sociological yearbook school. Aiming at the general assumption of "psychological consistency" of the classical evolutionary school, the sociological yearbook school puts forward the paradigm of social determinism: first, social facts are self-sufficient and can only be explained by other pre-existing social facts, but cannot be reduced to psychological and biological levels; Second, society is first, external, independent of individuals and greater than the sum of individuals, so it can form coercion on individuals; Thirdly, the coercive power of society comes from intangible and powerful collective consciousness and collective representation, and religion based on the classification of saints and customs is the core form of society; Fourthly, people classify nature according to social and cultural classification, which is based on the principle of binary opposition; Fifthly, all the above social phenomena have realistic functions, and can be empirically studied by scientific methods.

The sociological yearbook school not only provides a series of analytical concepts for this discipline, but also successfully demonstrates the characteristics of human thinking and economic activities. This school regards sociology and ethnology as interrelated subjects. Its social definition is: "all modes of action, thoughts and feelings outside the individual." Social determinism, also known as background theory, is a theoretical viewpoint that technology is not only a means to solve problems, but also a reflection of social values such as ethics, politics and culture.

Social determinism is the main theory of Emile Durkheim (1858- 19 17), the founder of the French school of sociology, and his disciples. /kloc-in the second half of the 0/9th century, French society was in turmoil. As a sociologist, he devotes himself to answering practical questions and helping the society to remain integrated. Achieve stability. His three major works, Social Division of Labor, Suicide and the Original Form 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 collective consciousness plays on society and individuals.