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Sociological Theory Of Emile Durkheim

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Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) commonly known as the founder of modern sociology was a functionalist. He insisted a lot on making Sociology as a recognised subject in university. He was sure that with the introduction of this subject, France which was his homeland would be capable of fighting the moral crisis (loss of morality) spreading among all the country. All this moral crisis was leading to threat to social solidarity and stability. Durkheim's theory regarding social facts particularly show the difference between Sociology with any relatively similiar subject such as Psychology or Philosophy. Social facts could be divided in two, material or immaterial. What interested Durkheim most was the study of immaterial social facts which include …show more content…

The primitive society and the industrial society. In a primitive society, there was less economic specialization. Social cohesion was a must for the individual or else he/she could be easily excluded from it. There were no 'segments' within the society and no variation within the society was present. This can still be seen in certain tribes still present in the African continent. Durkheim referred to this relation within these societies as 'mechanical solidarity'. This type of solidarity forces people to think and act alike. On the other hand, in industrialised societies of the modern day, there are plenty of segments present and although this society is built up on the attraction of the opposites, where individuals have more specified roles, the society works fine. The increase in economic specialization caused this. Durkheim refers to this as 'organic solidarity'. In organic solidarity, individuals are required to think and act differently from each other in a way that everyone depends on each other and thus a stronger bond is …show more content…

Therefore this shows that the individuals belong to the society. Another function of religion is meaning and purpose. This means that the beliefs imposed by the religion give hope, comfort and security to the whole of society. Lastly, another important role of religion is social control due to the fact that the majority of the norms and values in society are in accordance to the religious beliefs. Therefore, a 'criminal' individual will not only be breaking social norms but also violating religious values. In this way, Durkheim expresses how religion plays an important part in helping society form the

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