Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (6): 33-70.

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Durkheim's Moral Principle and Modern Currents through His Four Types of Suicide

WANG Nan   

  1. School of Sociology, China University of Political Science and Law
  • Online:2017-11-20 Published:2017-11-20
  • Supported by:

    This paper was the phased result of the project "Durkheim's moral education thought and professional ethics and social construction of civic morals"(13BSH004) sponsored by the National Social Science Foundation of China

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Abstract:

Le Suicide is commonly regarded as a "scientifically" positive work through the application of statistical analysis. However, this paper proposes that Durkheim's suicide study is also a systematic analysis of the pathology of modern society. By examining the pathology of the types of suicide, along with Durkheim's writings on moral education and primitive religion, the study tries to uncover his thoughts on the morality of human beings and society. The four types of suicide are the manifestation of social moral illnesses. Egoistic and anomie suicides are typical maladies of modern society. The former stems from the absence of group attachment, the latter from the loss of social norms and discipline. Acute altruism and fatalistic suicide are extreme reactions to egoistic suicide and anomie suicide. The former turns the lack of group attachment into excessive fantasy and fanaticism. The latter moves from anomie to zealous commitment on norms and discipline. The paper also touches Durkheim's thoughts on the origin and evolution of Western European modern society by looking into his discussions on French middle school education and French political and legal history. In his view, the morbid condition of French society at the time was the result of its inability to meet the challenge of social structural change of the Middle Age. For not being able to create a reasonable balanced social structure under the new historical conditions, the French society faced the dangerous development of modern social currents. Durkheim suggested the three blocks of moral education, corporate bodies and civic morality as a means of social science for building a new balanced structure for future society.

Key words: moral element, social pathology, social current, history of civilization, collective representation