Durkheim claimed that religion was an expression of social cohesion. He was interested in the problem of what hold complex modern societies together. He thought that religion was a source of camaraderie and solidarity. Religion leads individuals composed to a society. He also wanted to find out the relationship between different religions in different cultures and finding a common denominator.
The study of suicide was very important because he was the first one who analysis suicide in sociological way and he rejected non-sociological explanations. He also was the first one who developed the notion into a logically consistent and completed the theory of suicide. Also, he was one of the founders in using quantitative analysis in criminology during his suicide case study. His study of suicide was measurable, objective and comparable variables. He was not depending on changeable human motives on his study. In durkheim’s suicide, there were some limitations, moral orientation and self-interest was neglected. In his study, suicide is a result of moral disorder and individuals have simple contacts only. Also, culture difference and the style of life were not considered as well. more than that
Durkheim thought that suicide is a social fact and it is measurable by statistics and suicide phenomenon is measurable. His definition of suicide is: "the term suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result" (1982, quote from Suicide). He thought that suicide is regular, predictable and cannot be explained by individual factors. He claimed that suicide and morality are social facts and can be explained by other social facts. For example, suicide can be explained by suicide rates. Thus the reason of suicide exists in society can be explained and predicted by morality. If the standard of social morality is high, that means the restriction of society and people are high. In durkheim’s suicide, reasons for suicide can be divided into two causes, social integration and social regulation. Social integration is an internal commitment to a practice. For this one, individual is integrated either poorly or excessively into society, such as religion and political condition. Social regulation is an external constraint to individuals of morality. Individuals’ passion or activity is either none or extremely regulated by society. He also brought out four types of suicide, egoistic, altruistic, anomic and fatalistic suicide.
In egoistic suicides, people are for own individual interest only and they are excessive individualism, which means they tended to kill themselves for their own interest. This kind of suicide usually resulted from weak collective conscience with a low social integration society and the society is tented to emphasis on individual rights and welfare. Individuals are encouraged to make their own decision and accept the consequences. It does vary with religious, domestic and political integrations, for example, in a protestant societies. However, Durkheim discovered that unmarried people, especially males committing suicide more than unmarried people because they have less connection to social norms. Anyway, egoistic suicide leads to a high suicide rate in a society and it is common in modern society after the industrialization.
In altruistic suicide, there is no individual interest and individual is renunciation. The social needs are more important than the individual needs. This occurs in societies with high integration. People are likely to sacrifice themselves for their faith, religions, society or duty and honor, even sacrifice their own life. For example, suicide bombers were willing to take their lives for their religions and Seppuku in Japan for the lord. This kind of suicide is commonly seen in some pre-modern society and before western civilization.
In anomic suicide, people are naturally selfish. They put their own needs and interests first. It is resulted from low social moral regulation and it is related to economic and domestic conditions and usually occurs from sudden changes on the society. For example, the suicide rates are high during economic depression or even expansion. Durkheim also discovered that higher educated people are committing suicide more because they are lack of social moral regulation and they seek more than they could have, which means higher educated people are establishing goals and expectations. However, married people have lower suicide because their lives are restricted and their opportunities and goals are limited.
In fatalistic suicide, people prefer to die within overly oppressive societies. It is resulted from excessive social moral regulation. Durkheim thought that fatalistic suicide is a rare phenomenon in the real world. But there is also an example for his type of suicide, prisoner’s suicide, prisoner s would like to kill themselves rather than living in a prison.
There are some famous people that impressed Durkheim a lot. August Comte, the father of sociology, a French thinker who created the term of sociology and contributed a lot in sociology. Durkheim hold to the organic solidarity argument and the non-reduction of social being to the individual but see Comte’s theory as insufficient to the task of classifying and demarcating the particular elements of social being. Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher. There was a largely different between Durkheim and Spencer, for example, Durkheim disputes Spencer by claiming that if the social intervention is on the rise, the legal obligations which society imposes on its member will becoming more complex. Wilheim Wundt, one of the founding figures of modern psychology and he was regarded as the father of experimental psychology. Durkheim learnt the investigation of science from him.
However, Durkheim was also affected by social and political factors. For example, The Dreyfus Affair in 1890’s-1900’s was related to the social morality. He helped an innocent Jews to appeal. It was a case of how the low social morality affected the society. The industrial revolutions also affected his point of view in division of labour.
To sum up, Durkheim was a pioneer of the study of sociology. He contributed many ideas to sociology. There are some theories still can be applied into modern society. For example, the study of division of labour and suicide. His analysis was focused in society but not individuals. He also published rules of the sociological method which helped others sociologists to analysis and develop their study and theory.
References
Steve, T. (1982). Durkheim and the study of suicide. London : Macmillian.
Pickering, W. S. F. (2002). Drukheim today. New York : Berghahn Books.
Joe, D. L (1999, 2003).
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