Durkheim argued that society is more than the sum of individual acts. Discuss. (10 Marks) UPSC MAINS 2022 - Sociology
Durkheim gave primacy to the society rather than to the individual in his evaluation of social reality. According to him, society exists over and above the individual.
According to Durkheim social facts are collective ways of acting, thinking and feeling etc. which are diffused in a given society; they are independent of individual manifestations and coercive on the individual members e.g. laws. Durkheim argued that social facts cannot be reduced to individuals, but must be studied as their own reality. Durkheim referred to social facts with the Latin term sui generis, which means “unique.” He used this term to claim that social facts have their own unique character that is not reducible to individual consciousness. To allow that social facts could be explained by reference to individuals would be to reduce sociology to psychology. Instead, social facts can be explained only by other social facts
In his study of suicide, Durkheim departs from psychological explanation of suicide to describing suicide as collective tendencies that exist outside the individual and grab the most vulnerable in its clutches. He classified suicide based on the amount of integration and regulation that the society exerts on the individual.
Similarly, in his study on religion, Durkheim equates religion and society. The purpose of religion is reinforcing collective conscience and increase solidarity. Durkheim’s emphasis on social reality over individual has been criticized by different groups mainly the phenomenologists. They believe that the meanings attached to values by the actor must be found to understand social action as society is a creation of man.
Also Read this Answer - https://iasgoogle.com/daily_question/comment-on-methodological-individualism-of-max-weber
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