45 pages • 1 hour read
Émile DurkheimThe Division of Labor in Society
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1893A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
David Émile Durkheim (1858-1917)
David Émile Durkheim is often cited as one of the founders of modern sociology. His work, along with that of Max Weber and Karl Marx, explores the impact of industrialization and modernity on social development. Most notably, Durkheim seeks to explain how increasingly mobile and diverse communities can find meaning and a sense of collectivism in the complex industrial world. Durkheim notes that traditional and religious institutions, which had been the primary social glue of past communities, are gradually ceding power to specialized social institutions. The Division of Labor in Society is an attempt to address these questions of social progress, organization, and coherence.
In 1858, Durkheim was born in France, and beginning in 1879 he attended the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. His academic interest rapidly turned to psychology, philosophy, and sociology. These three disciplines form the basis of his doctoral dissertation, The Division of Labor in Society. Durkheim’s education also encouraged his interest in the work of other philosophers and experts in the field, including, notably, Herbert Spencer, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Auguste Comte. Among these, the work of Spencer figures most prominently in The Division of Labor in Society, with entire chapters dedicated to the appraisal of his socioeconomic theories.
Durkheim is a strong proponent of the scientific method. In The Division of Labor in Society he argues that rational reasoning from careful observation is crucial not only to the sciences but also to humanities. In The Rules of Sociological Method, Durkheim designs a methodology for future sociological work, and in Suicide, he puts these methods into practice through a case study. The outbreak of the First World War had a profound impact on Durkheim, whose son died in the war. Durkheim himself passed away in 1917.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
Herbert Spencer is an English philosopher, biologist, and anthropologist most known for his theory on natural selection. Influenced by Charles Darwin’s research, Spencer proposed the idea that only the strongest of organisms survive to pass down their traits to the next generation. Most notably, Spencer believes ethical and sociological traits acquired during an organism’s lifetime can be passed down to progeny, thereby supporting Lamarckism, which has since been disproven in the field of biology.
Spencer’s work figures prominently in The Division of Labor in Society. Durkheim dedicates part of Chapter 6 and almost the entirety of Chapter 7 in Book I to the evaluation of his theories. Although Durkheim mentions other experts whose works have informed his, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx, only Spencer’s ideas feature prominently and repeatedly throughout the work. Durkheim’s conclusion, that the division of labor is but a result of the natural process of evolution, approximates Spencer’s theory on the survival of the fittest. Similarly, Durkheim reprises the Lamarckian idea that acquired physiological and ethical traits, provided they are not complex, can be passed down through heredity. Durkheim also repeatedly likens society to a biological organism. In sum, Spencer’s work has profoundly informed Durkheim’s own vision.
