SOCI 3251 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Sui Generis, Auguste Comte, Solidarity
Document Summary
In wwi he was openly attacked by pro-war nationalists. His son died after being drafted, causing him to go into depression and die of a stroke later. Durkheim theorized that society is sui generis (an objective reality that is irreducible to the individuals that compose it) and amenable to scientific investigation. Unlike marx durkheim focused more on scientific analysis and education as ways of improving society rather than political activism. A major focus for durkheim was identifying the changing nature of social solidarity and integration over the development of societies. How a society"s cultural values or organization impacted social pathologies such as suicide. The function of collective cultural practices such as rituals for social life. Durkheim was primarily influenced by his engagement with sociologist herbert spencer and philosopher august comte. Comte coined the term sociology in 1839 and contended that the social world could be studied as rational and scientific a way as the physical sciences.
