modified:: 2023-10-18, 2352
up:: Durkheim Theory
tags::
Collective Consciousness
Overview
The Consciousness of a Society formed by common ideas, beliefs, values & Moral Facts of its members.
- The source of Mechanical Solidarity when members of a society are alike.
- Uniform values & moral code -> Sensitivity to Deviance -> Necessity of conforming to society's norms & morality for others to feel safe.
Government
- Government is brain of Society, meant to embody the collective's will.
- It has #Quotes#Moral Force to legislate & enforce the Repressive Laws & Restitutive Laws of society to ensure Societal Solidarity.
- Such laws are like the Nervous System which communicates to the different Organs (& individuals) their code of conduct & moral rules.
- Its in the collective's interest to manage the relationships between functions of society to ensure it functions via Restitutive Laws.
- It has #Quotes#Moral Force to legislate & enforce the Repressive Laws & Restitutive Laws of society to ensure Societal Solidarity.
- However, Government is its own function separate from the Collective Consciousness and can get desynched from it.
Quotes
For implications of the Mechanical Solidarity brought about by Collective Consciousness, see Durkheim's Freedom and Individuality.
What is Collective Consciousness
"The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own... By definition it is diffused over society as a whole, but nonetheless possesses specific characteristics that make it a distinctive reality." (Durkheim, 1893, pg 39)
Moral Force
"there exists no moral force superior to that of the individual, save that of the collectivity" (Durkheim, 1893, pg 67)