Emile Durkheim The Division Of Labor In Society Analysis

In Emile Durkheim’s book The Division of Labor in Society, there is a passage, on page 312, in which he writes about the division of labor, solidarity, and spontaneity. I will break down what these three terms means to him and what he was trying to convey to his audience, at the time. Durkheim believed that solidarity is what made a healthy, organic society. An organic society, to him, was one where there was still inequality, but more specifically, natural inequality. He saw there being two kinds of inequalities. One is natural inequality, which was mentioned previously and the other is social inequality. Natural inequality is when you naturally have an ability or talent, such as being a better singer, being a better runner, or even just …show more content…
He also has an idea of what makes an abnormal society. As mentioned previously, an abnormal society, to him, would be one where the forced division of labor and social inequality are very prevalent. In a healthy, organic society, natural inequality would be prevalent. Social inequality does not mix well with an organic, solidaristic society. To him, it is a good thing to have people who are naturally smarter or better singers because that means people will be sorted into a career that is better suited for them. The division of labor would sort itself out on the basis of natural inequality and he had no problem with that. However, to have a healthy society, he believed you cannot have social …show more content…
Marx also has his own ideologies. However, their ideologies were dissimilar from one another. For instance, Durkheim believed that you could still have a normal, stable, society in our modern capitalistic world if we have inequality. However, only with natural inequality. Not with social inequality. Durkheim believed it was okay to have certain inequality, as long as we feel attached to it, “It is necessarily encountered everywhere, men live a life in common, whether this results from the social division of labor or from the attraction of like to like” (Durkheim, pg.95-96). What Durkheim saw as abnormal was the forced division of labor that forced you down a path that is not for you. To sum up, Durkheim believed that it was possible to have a division of labor in our capitalistic society that can function in a stable, healthy way, which can still be solidaristic. Marx had a whole other idea. Marx believed that capitalism, in itself, was fundamentally unstable. He believed that we do not really choose what class we are born into, which in turn, coerces us into the forced division of labor. He believed that it was not possible to have inequality, to have capitalism, and still have a stable society because capitalism thrives off of exploitation. “The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of