“Chapter 5: Consequences” in “Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology”
Chapter 5. Consequences
Part 1. Suppleness of the Division of Labor
Our previous discussion now permits us to better understand the way in which the division of labor functions in society.
The division of social labor is different from the division of physiological labor in one key way. In the organism, each cell has its defined role, and it cannot change it. In societies, however, even where the forms of organization are most rigid, individuals can move about with a certain freedom. As work is divided more, this suppleness and freedom become greater. A person can raise himself from the humblest beginning to the most important occupations. Even more frequently, a worker leaves his job for another one close by. Today a scholar can pass from one discipline to another, from chemistry to biology, or from psychology to sociology. [Things move even faster in business, where new tastes displace old ones, and workers must constantly be ready to serve different employments.]
Now contrast the biological organism. If the function of each cell is fixed, it is because it is imposed by birth. Each cell is imprisoned, if you will, in a system of hereditary customs which cannot be overcome. The structure predetermines the cell’s life. It is not the same in society. Origins do not determine the outcomes of individuals; her innate characteristics do not predestine her to one role only, making her incapable of any other. From heredity she receives only a general disposition, one quite supple and able to take on many different forms.
Part 2. The Development of Civilization
In determining the principal cause of the progress of the division of labor, we have at the same stroke determined the essential factor of what we call civilization.
Civilization is itself the necessary consequences of the changes which are produced in the volume and density of societies. If science, art, and economic activity develop, it is out of necessity, because there is no other way to live in the new conditions people find themselves in. From the time that the number of individuals begins to increase, people can maintain themselves only by greater specialization, working harder, and increasing the intensity of their abilities. From all this general stimulation there naturally results a much higher degree of culture. From this point of view, civilization is not an end to which people strive, not something foreseen and desired in advance, but merely the effect of a cause, the result of a given state of population concentration. It is not the pole to which historic development is moving us in order to seek happiness or improvement. We move towards it because we must move towards it, and what determines the speed of our march is the amount of pressure we exercise upon each other, according to our number.
This does not mean that civilization is useless, but only that it is not its uses that make it progress. It develops because it cannot help but develop. We see even more clearly now how wrong it is to make civilization the function of the division of labor when in fact it is only the consequence of it. Civilization cannot explain the existence or the progress of the division of labor since it has no intrinsic value in itself, but only has a reason for existing insofar as the division of labor is itself found necessary.
Still, while being a mere effect of necessary causes, civilization can become an end, an object of desire, even an ideal. A mechanistic conception of society [as advanced here] does not preclude ideals. … There is and there will always be, between the extreme points at which we find ourselves and the end towards which we are tending, a free field open to our efforts.
Part 3. The Development of Individual Personality
At the same time that societies are transformed, individuals are transformed by changes in population concentration.
Above all, they are more free of the control of the physiological organism. Where a non-human animal is almost completely under the influence of its physical environment, people are dependent on social causes.
Questions
- What does Durkheim us as a measure of moral density?
- You should have learned by now that “correlation is not causation.” Does Durkheim make this error in Part 1 of Chapter 2?
- Can you think of a situation where there might be more people but fewer contacts so that the segmented structure does not, in fact, break down and give way to the division of labor? What about a situation of fewer people but greater contacts?
- Why does the division of labor generally advance in societies?
- Do animals, plants, and people thrive through difference? Consider the implications here. How would Durkheim likely weigh in on current immigration debates?
- How does increasing specialization bring more freedom? Is individual freedom something useful for modern society? Do you find it odd to discuss freedom in terms of usefulness?
- What is the cause of civilization? How is this similar to the argument about freedom? [it may help to first define what exactly Durkheim means by the term civilization]
- Although you may be interested in reading the entire “part 3” of the fifth chapter, see if you can fill in Durkheim’s argument without doing so! Why is it that personality develops as moral and dynamic density increases? What consequences follow from human animals’ greater influence of social, rather than physiological, forces?
Concepts
Moral/Dynamic Density
- This is but one example of the outdated anthropology of the day. We now know that there were in fact extensive cities far earlier than was known by Durkheim. Whether the existence of these cities undercuts his theory is another question. ↵
We use cookies to analyze our traffic. Please decide if you are willing to accept cookies from our website. You can change this setting anytime in Privacy Settings.