“The role of solidarity is not to suppress competition, but to moderate it.”
The central tenet of society for Durkheim is situated firmly within the tension created by the relationship between the ownership class and the working class. Whereas Marx based his economic theories upon how this tension creates conflict, Durkheim views divisions between classes and within classes as what he terms the “normal state” which is actually necessary for society to function.
“It is surely true that solidarity, while being a social fact of the first order, depends on the individual organism. In order to exist, it must be contained in our physical and psychic constitution.”
Durkheim’s theory of the Social Fact can at times seem similar to that of the false consciousness of Marxism. Durkheim takes the concept of Social Fact to different level, however, with his insistence that these elements of society are formed organically within the individual in order to become expressions of the collective. Ideologically speaking, then, as a methodology for studying the division of labor, solidarity is kind of a false consciousness because it only exists as a unifying aspect of the organic social fact. Which, of course, lends it all the qualities of solidarity necessary to social cohesion.
“It is quite legitimate to suppose that the facts which we have just observed reproduce themselves here, but with greater amplitude, that great political societies can maintain themselves in equilibrium only thanks to the specialization of tasks, that the division of labor is the source, if not unique, at least principal, of social solidarity.”
The theory of the division of labor expressed by Durkheim continues on the theme of the division growing organically into a normal state. The foundation of that organic division is the reality that individual members of a society attain solidarity directly as a result of being born with different interests and acquiring different skills which then lead to specialization within those interests and skill sets. Modernization is the logical outgrowth of increased specialization and, in turn, the logical outgrowth of that is an increase and expansion of the interests and skills which can be pursued.
“Nothing seems easier to determine, at first glance, than the role of the division of labor. Are not its effects universally recognized? Since it combines both the productive power and the ability of the workman, it is the necessary condition of development in societies, both intellectual and material development. It is the source of civilization. Besides, since we quite facilely assign an absolute value to civilization, we do not bethink ourselves to seek any other function for the division of labor.”
At first glance, this quote may seem like a summing up that occurs near conclusion. In fact, it appears quite early on and its purpose is rather misleading. The summation here is devoted to what the role of the division of labor is, but the succeeding section is actually almost wholly devoted to a key aspect of society that is absent from that role.
“morality is the least indispensable, the strictly necessary, the daily bread without which societies cannot exist.
Morality is here declared to be an absolute essential for society to exist, and yet it is not mentioned in the above paragraph specifically outlining the role of the division of labor. Thus, much of the succeeding argument will be an attempt to integrate the existence of and potential for morality to co-exist with the above listed roles as one of the necessary conditions for creating the normative state of solidarity as a Social Fact of the division of labor in society.
