Emile Durkheim and Max Weber are theorists well recognized for their notions of broadly moral ways of thinking in social explanation. While Durkheim’s findings see society operating under shared representations, Weber finds that society operates under a particular set of ideas, specifically ascetic Protestantism. While both means of thinking may seem similar, the overall idea of each theorist varies in providing reason for social explanation. A crucial finding of Emile Durkheim in Suicide was that suicide rates vary among groups of individuals within society based on their degree of social integration. Durkheim focuses on three types of suicide within society: egoistic, anomic, and altruistic. He found that egoistic suicide occurs in a society
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The idea of a “collective conscience,” the need for a common core of values and beliefs, as a shared representation is at the backbone of Durkheim’s suicide arguments. In Protestant societies where religious doctrines stress individual conscience as the pathway to salvation, the typical suicide occurs because the victim has failed to resolve the fundamental moral dilemmas that
Sweeney 2 coping with them on his own poses. Without this common core of values and beliefs, the individual sees no goal to which he might commit himself, and thus feels useless and without purpose. Shared representations, in Durkheim’s eyes, are social explanation; they provide the reason for existence.
Max Weber, on the other hand, sees society operating under a particular set of ideas as the reason for social explanation. His research discussed in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism argues that the modern spirit of capitalism sees profit as an end in itself, and pursuing profit as virtuous. He relates this feeling of moral integrity to that of Protestant faith. The overall goal of capitalism is to earn a profit to better one’s livelihood and the overall goal of Protestantism is to inhibit one’s worldly "calling,” predetermined by
The idea of a “collective conscience,” the need for a common core of values and beliefs, as a shared representation is at the backbone of Durkheim’s suicide arguments. In Protestant societies where religious doctrines stress individual conscience as the pathway to salvation, the typical suicide occurs because the victim has failed to resolve the fundamental moral dilemmas that
Sweeney 2 coping with them on his own poses. Without this common core of values and beliefs, the individual sees no goal to which he might commit himself, and thus feels useless and without purpose. Shared representations, in Durkheim’s eyes, are social explanation; they provide the reason for existence.
Max Weber, on the other hand, sees society operating under a particular set of ideas as the reason for social explanation. His research discussed in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism argues that the modern spirit of capitalism sees profit as an end in itself, and pursuing profit as virtuous. He relates this feeling of moral integrity to that of Protestant faith. The overall goal of capitalism is to earn a profit to better one’s livelihood and the overall goal of Protestantism is to inhibit one’s worldly "calling,” predetermined by