The central concern of Èmile Durkheim's theory is to understand how men live in society, that is, how social cohesion takes place. This, according to him, is given by the conformity of the particular consciences to the collective conscience.
The particular consciousness is the one that contains the states that are personal to each one of us and that characterize us as individuals (individual personality), while the collective consciousness is the set of beliefs and feelings common to the members of a society, being a determined system that has its own life, that is, it does not depend on individuals to exist. It's all social conscience.
The two forms of consciousness are solidary and, even if distinct, are linked to each other, enabling the individual's connection to society.
For Durkheim, there are two types of solidarity: a mechanics and the organic. Solidarity of a mechanical type not only links the individual to the group, but harmonizes the details of this connection, since it is the similarity between individuals that generates the social bond. The social division of labor, in this case, is small or simply non-existent. There is an identity between individual and collective consciousness, that is, social identity occurs because men are similar to each other. As an example, we have the “primitive” societies. It is important to emphasize that the right in mechanical solidarity is repressive. It serves to maintain social cohesion, as any wrongful action goes against the collective conscience and requires the application of a penalty to reinforce that conscience.
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Organic solidarity, on the other hand, is that which results from a high social division of labor (DST), in which the large number of experts cause there to be social interdependence, that is, it is the difference between individuals that causes the social bond. Due to the intense STD, there is a predominance of individual consciousness, with each individual having their own sphere of action, a personality that in the collective conscience exerts a more intense cohesion, as individuals depend more on one another. others. In this form of solidarity, individuals are grouped no longer according to descent relationships, but according to the particular nature of the social activity they carry out. We have as an example the capitalist society. The right in this solidarity is restitutive or cooperative, in which actions hurt some individuals and not others. This type of right intends to make the individual able to return to life in society.
Therefore, there is a correlation between the types of conscience that determines the type of solidarity and the right that maintains the link between individuals within a given society.
By João Francisco P. Cabral
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Uberlândia - UFU
Master's student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
CABRAL, João Francisco Pereira. "The forms of solidarity, conscience and law in Durkheim"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/filosofia/as-formas-solidariedade-consciencia-direito-durkheim.htm. Accessed on June 29, 2021.
