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Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology: Chapter 6: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity, cont.

Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology
Chapter 6: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity, cont.
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table of contents
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Table Of Contents
  4. Introduction
    1. Aims and Goals
    2. Organization Overview
      1. Outline of the Textbook
      2. Translating Passages
      3. Modernizing the Text
      4. Some Useful History
        1. Ten Things Marx, Weber, and Durkheim Took for Granted about the History of the World that you Might Want to Read More About
      5. Suggested Further Reading
      6. Timelines (Marx, Weber, and Durkheim)
      7. Major Themes
  5. Downloads
  6. Marx and Engels
    1. Biography of Marx by F. Engels (1868)
    2. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
      1. Introduction
    3. Marx on Wages
      1. Introduction
      2. Ch. 19: The Transformation of the Value or Price of Labor Power into Wages
    4. Marx on Wage Labor and Capital
      1. Introduction
      2. Wage Labor and Capital
      3. The Nature and Growth of Capital
      4. Relation of Wage-Labor to Capital
    5. Value, Price and Profit
      1. Introduction
      2. Value and Labor
      3. The Different Parts into Which Surplus Value is Decomposed
      4. Attempts at Raising Wages
      5. The Struggle Between Capital and Labor and Its Results
    6. Capital, part 1
      1. Introduction
      2. Part I: Commodities
      3. Part II: Transformation of Money Into Capital
      4. Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value
    7. Capital, part 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital
      3. Part VIII: Primitive Accumulation
    8. Eighteenth Brumaire
      1. Introduction
      2. Opening Passages
      3. Part Two
      4. Part Three
      5. Part Four
      6. Part Five
      7. Part Six
      8. Part Seven
    9. Principles of Communism
      1. Introduction
      2. Principles of Communism
    10. The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery
      1. Introduction
      2. The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery
    11. Revolution is Coming
      1. Introduction
      2. Marx's Speech on the Toast to the Proletarians of Europe
    12. The Communist Manifesto
      1. Introduction
      2. Bourgeois and Proletarians
      3. Proletarians and Communists
    13. Concepts/Dictionary
  7. Durkheim
    1. Biography of Durkheim
    2. Rules of Method (1895)
      1. Introduction
      2. Part I: The Rules of Sociological Method
        1. Introduction
        2. What is a Social Fact?
      3. Part II
        1. Chapter 2: Rules for the Observation of Social Facts
          1. Section 1. Treat Social Facts as Things
          2. Section 2. Guidelines for Sociologists
          3. Section 3. Rules on the Distinction Between Normal and Pathological
    3. Division of Labor, Introduction
      1. Introduction
      2. Preface
      3. Book One
        1. Ch. 1: The Method for Determining this Function
        2. Ch. 2: Mechanical Solidarity Through Likeness
        3. Ch. 3: Organic Solidarity Due to the Division of Labor
        4. Ch. 4: Further Proof of the Preceding
        5. Ch. 5: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity
        6. Ch. 6: Progressive Preponderance cont.
        7. Ch. 7: Organic Solidarity and Contractual Solidarity
      4. Book 2
        1. Ch. 1: The Progress of the Division of Labor and of Happiness
        2. Ch. 2: The Causes
        3. Ch 3. Secondary Factors--Progressive Indeterminancy
        4. Ch. 4: Secondary Factors--Heredity
        5. Ch. 5: Consequences of the Preceding
      5. Book 3
        1. Ch. 1: The Anomic Division of Labor
        2. Ch. 2: The Forced Division of Labor
        3. Ch. 3: Another Abnormal Form
    4. Division of Labor, Book 1
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 3: Organic Solidarity Due to the Division of Labor
      3. Chapter 4: Further Proof the Preceding
      4. Chapter 5: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity; Its Consequences
      5. Chapter 6: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity, cont.
    5. Division of Labor, Book 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 2: The Causes
      3. Chapter 5: Consequences
    6. Division of Labor, Book 3
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 1: The Anomic Division of Labor
      3. Chapter 2: The Forced Division of Labor
      4. Conclusion
    7. Le Suicide (1897) - Introduction/Book 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Book Two: Social Causes and Social Types
        1. Ch. 1: Method of Determining Them
        2. Ch. 2: Egotistical Suicide
        3. Ch. 3: Egotistical Suicide, cont.
        4. Ch. 4: Altruistic Suicide
        5. Ch. 5: Anomic Suicide
    8. Education and Sociology (1922)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Nature and Role of Education
        1. Part 1: Different Definitions of Education
        2. Part 2: Defining Education
        3. Part 3: The Social Character of Education
        4. Part 4: The Role of the State in the Matter of Education
        5. Part 5: The Power of Education and the Means of its Influence
    9. Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912)
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 1: The Sociological Study of Religion
      3. Part 2: Theories of Knowledge
    10. EXTRA: Review of Année Sociologique (1898) article
    11. EXTRA: Review of Suicide by Havelock Ellis
    12. Concepts/Dictionary
  8. Weber
    1. Biography of Weber
    2. Methodological Foundations of Sociology (1921)
      1. Introduction
      2. Methodological Foundations of Sociology
        1. Point 1: Meanings are Empirically Situated
        2. Point 2: We cannot always find the intentions of the actors
        3. Point 3: The goal of interpretation is to generate evidence about the world, and we can do this both rationally and empathetically
        4. Point 4: Meaningless actions are still important insofar they impact social actions
        5. Point 5: Sociological understaning is explanatory
        6. Point 6: Sociological understanding is hypothetical
        7. Point 7: Motives of actions are crucial to sociological interpretation because they are related to causality
        8. Point 8: Meaningless actions are not unimportant, but they are not sociological facts
        9. Point 9: Individuals...are the intelligible performers of meaningful actions
        10. Point 10: Sociology is distinct from psychology
        11. Point 11: Sociology is distinct from the discipline of history
    3. PESOC, part 1
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 1: The Problem
        1. Chapter 1. Religious Belief and Social Layering
        2. Chapter 2. The "Spirit" of Capitalism
        3. Chapter 3. Understanding Luther's Conception of Beruf (Calling)
    4. PESOC, part 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 2: The Vocational Ethic of the Ascetic Braches of Protestantism
        1. Chapter 4. The Religious Foundations of Worldly Ascetism
        2. Chapter 5. Ascetism and the Spirit of Capitalism
    5. The Development of Commerce
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 14: Points of Departure in the Development of Commerce
      3. Chapter 15: Technical Requisites for the Transportation of Goods
      4. Chapter 16: Forms of Organization of Transportation and Commerce
      5. Chapter 17: Forms of Commercial Enterprise
      6. Chapter 21: Interests in the Pre-Capitalistic Period
    6. The Rational State
      1. Introduction
      2. The Rational State
        1. A. The State Itself; Law and Officialdom
        2. B. The Economic Policy of the Rational State
        3. C. Mercantilism
    7. The Evolution of the Capitalistic Spirit
      1. Introduction
      2. The Evolution of the Capitalistic Spirit
    8. Politics as a Vocation
      1. Introduction
      2. Lecture
    9. Bureaucracy
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 3, Chapter 6, Section 7: Bureaucracy
    10. CSP
      1. Introduction
      2. Introduction on Power
      3. Distribution of Power within a Gemeinschaft Community
        1. Classes
        2. Status Groups (Stände)
        3. Parties
    11. Concepts/Dictionary
  9. Early American Sociology
    1. Biography of Early American Sociologists
      1. William Graham Sumner
      2. Lester Frank Ward
      3. Albion Woodbury Small
      4. Franklin Henry Giddings
      5. Thorstein Veblen
      6. Charlotte Perkinds Gilman
      7. Jane Addams
      8. Robert Ezra Park
      9. Charles Horton Cooley
      10. Edward Alsworth Ross
      11. W.E.B. Du Bois
      12. Charles Abram Ellwood
    2. Comparison of Spencer and Ward by Barnes (1919)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Sociological View of the State
        1. Part I: Sumner, General Characteristics of His Sociological Thought
        2. Part 2: Ward; General Characteristics of His Sociological System
    3. Thorstein Veblen, on Labor(1898)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Instinct of Wokrmanship and the Irksomeness of Labor
    4. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics (1898)
      1. Introduction
      2. Preface
      3. Chapter 1
      4. Chapter 15
    5. Du Bois on The Study of Social Problems (1898)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Study of Social Problems
        1. Development of the Problems
        2. The Present Problems
        3. The Work Already Accomplished
        4. A Program of Future Study
    6. Jane Addams, “Trade Unions and Public Duty” (1899)
      1. Introduction
      2. Trades Unions
    7. Edward A. Ross on Social Control (1900)
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Control
    8. Charles A. Ellwood on Revolution (1905)
      1. Introduction
      2. Revolutions
    9. Charles Horton Cooley, “Social Consciousness” (1907)
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Mind in General
      3. Social and Individual Aspects of Consciousness
      4. Social Will
    10. Lester Ward, “Social Classes” (1908)
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Classes and Inequalities
    11. Franklin H. Giddings on Theory and Public Policy (1911)
      1. Introduction
      2. Theory and Public Policy
        1. Evolution is Simple or Compound
        2. Can war then be outlawed and generally prevented?
    12. Small on the Sociological Point of View (1920)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Sociologists' Point of View
        1. "Why need we study society?"
  10. Creative Commons License
  11. Recommended Citations
  12. Versioning

Chapter 6. Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity, continued

Part 1. Segmental Type

So we can say it is a historical law that mechanical solidarity, which at first stood alone, progressively loses ground and that, over time, little by little, organic solidarity predominates.

If we were to try to imagine an ideal type of society held together exclusively by likeness, we would have to conceive it as one wholly homogeneous, one in which none of its human members are distinguishable from one another; there would be no real organization to speak of.  It would be a social protoplasm, a blob, a horde, if you will.

It is true we have yet to find any society that operates completely in this way.  [We do find some glimmers of it, among some Native American tribes, for example.  We can designate hordes which form elements in more extensive groups as clans.]

We can call these societies segmented as they are formed by the repetition of like aggregations in them, like the rings of an earthworm. The term clan expresses the mixed nature of these segmented groups.  The clan is a family because its members are kin to one another.  These familial affinities are for the most part what keeps the group united.  But these are not families the way we understand families, because kinship need not be by blood.  The clan in fact contains a great many strangers.  It can comprise several thousand persons.  And it is the basic political unity as well, with the clan-heads the only social authorities.

The main point, however, is that the clan, just as the horde, of which it is but an extension, has no other solidarity than that derived from likeness.  For segmented organization to be possible, the segments must resemble one another; otherwise, they would not be united.

In these societies, religion pervades all of social life.  This is so because social life itself is almost exclusively composed of common beliefs and practices.  Where the collective personality is the only one in existence, property also must be collective, so we find an early form of communism operating in these societies.

There is, then, a social structure of a specific kind which corresponds with mechanical solidarity. What characterizes it is a system of segments homogeneous and similar to each other.

Part 2. Organized Type

Quite another thing is the structure of societies where organic solidarity is preponderant.

They are constituted by a system of different organs, each of which has a special role, and which are themselves formed of differentiated parts.  Social elements are not heaped together linearly as the rings of an earthworm, nor are they entwined with one another, but rather they are coordinated and subordinated to one another around a central organ which regulates the rest of the organism.  Others may depend on this central organ, but the central organ depends on the others as well.  [It is thus unlike a head of a clan, who embodies the collective conscience and to whom all others owe absolute obedience]. There is nothing superhuman or timeless about this central organ.  There are only differences in degree between this organ and the others.

This social type rests on such different principles as that of the segmented type that it can develop only so much as it erases the segmented type.  In organized societies, individuals are not grouped based on lineage or bloodline, but according to the particular nature of the social activity they engage in.  Their natural context is not that of birth [blood, race, etc.] but of occupation.  It is no longer real or fictitious kinship which marks the place of each, but the function which he or she fulfills.

No doubt, when this new organization began to appear, it tried to use the existing organization and to assimilate it.  So, functions were often allocated based on original divisions of birth.  In a way, classes (and castes in particular) probably have their origin thusly.  But this mixed arrangement cannot last for long, because there is a fundamental contradiction between the two.  It is only a very basic division of labor which can adapt to preexisting social divisions in this way.  The division of labor can only grow by freeing itself from this confining framework.  As soon as it passes a certain stage of development, there is no longer any relation between the hereditarily fixed properties of segments and the new skills and aptitudes called forth by the growth of functions needed in society.  The social material must combine in new ways to organize itself upon these different foundations.  The old structure, so far as it persists, is opposed to these new combinations.  Which is why it must disappear.

Thus the history shows that as one type progresses, the other type fades away.

Just as we could not say there was any known wholly segmented society, we also observe that there is as yet no wholly organized society.  We do see, however, that organic solidarity is progressing, and becoming more preponderant.

Our future investigations will show that our current occupational organization is not everything it should be, as abnormal causes have prevented it from attaining the degree of development which our social order now demands. [More on that in Book 3]

Questions

  1. If thinking for ourselves and thinking for the community are mutually opposed, as Durkheim suggests, where do YOU lie on this continuum?  If you had been born in, say, 1300CE, do you think your answer would have been different?  What about 1300BCE?  Why?
  2. Durkheim has been claimed as an early anthropologist, and much of his theory developed in The Division of Laboris based on observational and historical data about “primitive” peoples, including Native Americans, Aboriginal Australians, and early Jewish peoples. Much of this is inaccurate and/or biased by Eurocentric thinking.  In Chapter 6, Durkheim draws copiously from early anthropological thinking to describe how “segmented” societies (the horde, the clan) operate. Given the problems with the data used, is his theory still valid?  Explain your answer.  For those of you who are familiar with the world of Star Trek, it might be helpful for you to think of the “horde” as The Borg.
  3. When Durkheim talks about “the central organ” that “regulates” the other members, to what is he referring? If you are asked to describe Durkheim’s theory of the state in modern society, would this passage help?
  4. It may be hard for us, who develop in what Durkheim would call organized societies, to recognize the pull of “birth” to which he refers in part 2 of Chapter 6. You may want to consider what it might be like to live in a society in which all that mattered was who your ancestors were.  Can you think of historical examples when this might have been the case? Compare Durkheim’s “birth vs. occupation” to Weber’s “status vs. class.”

Concepts

Segmented Society

Collective Conscience

Organized Society

Mechanical Solidarity (and MS Societies)

Organic Solidarity (and OS Societies)

Annotate

Next Chapter
Division of Labor, Book 2
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Copyright © 2019 by Allison Hurst. Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology by Allison Hurst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
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