Running head: THEORIST OF CHOICE: EMILE DURKHEIM
The theorist of Choice: Emile Durkheim
Student’s name: Philomena Omongbale Green
THEORIST OF CHOICE: EMILE DURKHEIM
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The theorist of Choice: Emile Durkheim
Emile Durkheim was a Frenchman humanist who rose to fame in the 19th and mind
eighteenth hundred of years (Gorski, 2017). Mainly, he is among the most important organizers
of modern-day humanism. Also, Durkheim's significant works majored on ways in which
advanced and conventional social orders work and develop. Durkheim's theories were mainly
developed on the concept of social rites, considered as the values, ideals, and structures of the
general public. Furthermore, this perspective varied among the sociologists because his
speculations were developed from elements outside nature, instead of those inside nature, such as
the yearning and inspirations of people. Additionally, according to him, values, cognizance, and
guidelines form the fundamentals of functional culture.
According to Durkheim, society is an arrangement of interrelated parts, and each element
cannot work in isolation, and these elements constitute the whole society. As a result, in case any
of these elements changes, it impacts the entire community. Principally, Durkheim perceived
wring doing as ordinary and critical events in the social perspective. He argued that misconduct
provoked responses from the society concerning the misconduct and these responses are useful in
developing agreements on what the society believed were moral standards to tolerate. Moreover,
these established standards prompt guidelines and limits for the community. Most importantly, he
explained the impacts and causes of debilitating ties to the individual in his work on the division
of labor in society (Gorski, 2017).
According to Durkheim’s work on The Division of Labor, he differentiates two types of
solidarity that depends on various sources. The division of labor mainly explains the relationship
between collectivity and individuals and how individual’s multiplicity achieves social coherence.
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He postulated the division of work as the basis of social solidarity. In this case, solidarity signifies
the base of the organization, and it is the character traits of a society (Gorski, 2017). Therefore,
the concept of solidarity depicts the division of labor within society, and it makes individuals
interdependence and effects social integration among individuals.
Numerous reasons for selecting Emile Durkheim works over other theorists. Mainly,
Durkheim's works depict the relationship between society and an individual. He primarily focused
on the role society plays on the characteristic of an individual. For instance, he investigated the
varying rates if suicide amongst protestants and Catholics, and he clarified that more profound
social control among the Catholics resulted in lower suicidal rates (Cotterrell, 2017).
Also, I selected Durkheim due to his view on religion. According to him, religious alludes
to the procedures through which the society subdivided the world into the disrespected and
consecrated. For instance, he postulated that the holy domain requires specific practice, custom
and can never be dealt with indecently while the profane is normal life that can be tended and
addressed indecently (Cotterrell,2017).
Therefore, when the holy domain is dealt with
disrespectfully, it means that we have regarded some consecrated article as part of the standard
world and convey conventional rationale and reason to the examination, and this is the main reason
the holy domain can never be dealt with as profane.
Also, I chose the theorist because he tried to make people aware of the role of society apart
from the role played by psychology or biology in shaping social phenomena. According to
Durkheim, social aspects are facts constituting sociology and these facts have distinctive social
determinants and characteristics that are not amenable to explanations on psychological and
THEORIST OF CHOICE: EMILE DURKHEIM
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biological perspectives (Cotterrell, 2017). Therefore, he believed that society’s influences depend
on different aspects that constitute the phenomenon itself.
The modern rule of law can be understood using Durkheim’s 'Division of Labor in Society.
Importantly, according to Durkheim, society laws are the outstanding symbols of social solidarity
and in its most stable and precise form. Importantly, two types of laws are present in our societies,
and each law corresponds to every part of the society, the restitutive and repressive law.
Accurately, repressive law represents the center of common consciousness, and every member of
the society participate in punishing and judging the offender (Ashley, 2019). Mostly, repressive
laws are harsh, and according to Durkheim, they are adopted in a mechanical form within the
general public.
Restitutive law, on the other hand, emphasizes the victim because of the absence of
common beliefs on what affects the restitutive society law. Therefore, it matches the biological
state of the society and functions in institutionalized systems such as the courts (Ashley, 2019).
Therefore, restitutory and repressive varies depending on the level of society’s development.
Oppressive laws are common in less developed societies, and the penalties for wrongdoings are
agreed upon by the community. More so, according to Durkheim, crimes against such
communities take priority since collective conscious evolution in strong and widespread, and the
division of labor is not established. Therefore, the more a community is civilized, and the
division of labor instituted, the more restitutory it becomes.
THEORIST OF CHOICE: EMILE DURKHEIM
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References
Ashley Crossman. (October 24, 2019). Understanding Durkheim's 'Division of Labor in Society'
His Views on Social Change and the Industrial Revolution. thoughtco.co. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/mechanical-solidarity-3026761.
Cotterrell, R. (2017). Emile Durkheim: Justice, Morality, and Politics. Routledge.
Gorski, P. S. (2017). Recovered goods: Durkheimian sociology as virtue ethics. In Varieties of
Virtue Ethics (pp. 181-198). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
ANTH 1010 Sec 51 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Spring 2020
Essay #1
Read Chapters 8 and 13 and watch Two American Families (2013) by PBS (about 1 hr 23 minutes, posted on
Moodle) and respond to the question below.
Firstly, using Chapter 13, explain how the United States society has been stratified by class structure. How does
the wealth of individuals and families become the indication of class membership and why do class conflicts
persist in the United States? Secondly, using Chapters 8 and 13, discuss how market economies and capitalism
create a great deal of economic inequalities. Why do you think the greatest disparities of wealth and income of
any industrialized country exist in the United States? Lastly, analyze Two American Families using the above
discussions. How do you explain the decline of the American middle class especially in the context of accelerated
globalization through two families, the Neumann and Stanley families? How did the film help you understand
U.S. class stratification and economic inequalities by examining overall lifestyle based on their income,
education, and race of the last two decades of actual lives of “two American families”?
Your answer must be at least 750 words long (about three FULL double-spaced pages with font size 12) and
must include all the elements of the questions asked.
The paper must be computer generated and include your name and course number. The paper must be submitted
as a Microsoft Word document via Moodle by the specified due date/time. Late papers will not be accepted.
Your answer must include a main argument that is directly related to the question. Your argument must be
supported by evidence, i.e. the textbook and video (no other information should be used for this assignment
as reference), which needs to be fully documented. Failure to cite sources will be considered plagiarism.
The essay must have in-text citation using the page numbers of the assigned chapters in Humanity and
minute mark of the video, e.g. (Peoples, 177), (Two American Families: 12:05-12:15). No citation, no grade!
Plagiarism: is the unacknowledged use of another person's labor, ideas, words, and assistance. All work done for
this assignment is expected to be the individual effort to the student presenting the work. If the work entails
consulting other resources (journals, books or internet), these resources must be cited. Failure to cite borrowed
material constitutes plagiarism. The penalty for plagiarism or cheating as a first offense is an "F" in the course.
Tips
Start early. The video is about 83 minutes long. Make sure your computer plays the film (i.e. the website works).
You should watch the video where you can stop and re-start, take notes…etc as you must write down minute marks.
Analyzing the film may take longer than you expect.
Cite your sources for every piece of evidence/information in the text of your paper. Again, no citation, no grade!
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