THE ORGANIC CONCEPT OF SOCIETY 139 



hence the need of a special department of investigation with 

 its own terminology, — viz., sociology. This interest is revealed 

 in his Regies de la methode Sociologique, published in 1894, 1 in 

 which we find the thesis that " society is not a mere sum of in- 

 dividuals, but the system formed by their association represents a 

 specific reality which has its own characters." 2 Yet Durkheim 

 admits that there is no objective substratum of this collective 

 consciousness corresponding to the physiological substratum of 

 individual consciousness. 



The totality of the beliefs and sentiments common to the average members 

 of a social group form a definite system which has its own life. One can call 

 it the collective or common consciousness. To be sure it does not have a unique 

 organ for its substratum, for it is by definition, diffused throughout the extent 

 of the society; but nevertheless it has specific characters which make it a 

 distinct reality. It is independent of the particular conditions in which 

 individuals happen to be placed ; they pass, it remains. It is the same at the 

 north and in the middle sections, in the large cities and in the small, in the 

 different professions. Likewise it does not change with each generation but 

 on the contrary unites them. It is then something different from particular 

 consciousness although it is realized only through individuals. It is the 

 psychic type of society, — a type which has its own properties, conditions of 

 existence, mode of development, just as individuals have, although of a 

 different kind. By virtue of this it has a right to be designated by a special 

 word. 3 



While the above is true in a certain general sense of a sovereign 

 group or " people," — a conception elaborated by Le Bon, — it is 

 also true and more specifically so, according to our author, of 

 smaller social groupings within the state, as the family and 

 professions, and of these at particular times. 4 " The study of 

 these social solidarities," he holds, " is the special province of 

 sociology." 5 



In this conception we are getting away from the individual 

 approach to sociology as made by Spencer, 6 SchafHe and Mac- 

 kenzie to emphasize the reality of the group over against the 



1 Cf. Deploige, op. cti., pp. 156 f. 



2 Regies, p. 127, quoted by Deploige, op. oil., p. 157. 



3 De la Division du Travail Social, p. 84. 



4 " Ce qui existe et vit reellement, ce sont les formes particulieres de la solidarity, 

 la solidarite domestique, la solidarity professionnelle, la solidarity nationale, celle 

 d'hier, celle d'aujourd'hui, etc. Chacune a sa nature propre." — Ibid., p. 69. 



« Ibid., p. 69. 6 Ibid., p. 382. 



