Editing Émile Durkheim (section)

===Sociology of knowledge===

While Durkheim's work deals with a number of subjects, including suicide, [[Sociology of the family|the family]], [[social structure]]s, and [[Institution|social institutions]], a large part of his work deals with the [[sociology of knowledge]].

While publishing short articles on the subject earlier in his career,<ref group="lower-roman">For example, the essay ''De quelques formes primitives de classification'' (1902), written with [[Marcel Mauss]].</ref> Durkheim's definitive statement concerning the sociology of knowledge comes in his 1912 ''magnum opus'', ''[[The Elementary Forms of Religious Life]]''. This book has as its goal not only the elucidation of the social origins and function of religion, but also the social origins and impact of society on language and logical thought. Durkheim worked largely out of a Kantian framework and sought to understand how the concepts and categories of logical thought could arise out of social life. He argued, for example, that the categories of space and time were not [[A priori and a posteriori|''a priori'']]. Rather, the category of space depends on a society's social grouping and geographical use of space, and a group's social rhythm that determines our understanding of time.<ref>Durkheim, Emile. 2003 [1912]. ''Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse'' (5th ed.). [[Presses Universitaires de France]]. {{p.|628}}.</ref> In this Durkheim sought to combine elements of [[rationalism]] and [[empiricism]], arguing that certain aspects of logical thought common to all humans did exist, but that they were products of collective life (thus contradicting the ''[[tabula rasa]]'' empiricist understanding whereby categories are acquired by individual experience alone), and that they were not universal [[A priori and a posteriori|''a'' ''prioris'']] (as [[Kant]] argued) since the content of the categories differed from society to society.<ref group="lower-roman">See Durkheim (1912)  p. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41360/41360-h/41360-h.htm#Page_14 14–17], [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41360/41360-h/41360-h.htm#Page_19 19–22].</ref>

==== Collective representations ====
Another key elements to Durkheim's theory of knowledge outlined in ''Elementary Forms'' is the concept of {{Langx|fr|représentations collectives|label=none}} ("[[collective representations]]"). ''{{Langx|fr|Représentations collectives|label=none}}'' are the symbols and images that come to represent the ideas, beliefs, and values elaborated by a collectivity and are not reducible to individual constituents. They can include words, slogans, ideas, or any number of material items that can serve as a symbol, such as a cross, a rock, a temple, a feather etc. As Durkheim elaborates, ''{{Langx|fr|représentations collectives|label=none}}'' are created through intense social interaction and are products of collective activity. As such, these representations have the particular, and somewhat contradictory, aspect that they exist externally to the individual—since they are created and controlled not by the individual but by society as a whole—yet, simultaneously within each individual of the society, by virtue of that individual's participation within society.<ref name="Durkheim, Emile 1964">Durkheim, Emile. (1964). ''The elementary forms of the religious life.'' London: Allen & Unwin.</ref>

Arguably the most important "{{Langx|fr|représentations collectives|label=none}}" is [[language]], which according to Durkheim is a product of collective action. And because language is a collective action, language contains within it a history of accumulated knowledge and experience that no individual would be capable of creating on their own:<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|435}}<blockquote>If concepts were only general ideas, they would not enrich knowledge a great deal, for, as we have already pointed out, the general contains nothing more than the particular. But if before all else they are collective representations, they add to that which we can learn by our own personal experience all that wisdom and science which the group has accumulated in the course of centuries. Thinking by concepts, is not merely seeing reality on its most general side, but it is projecting a light upon the sensation which illuminates it, penetrates it and transforms it.</blockquote>As such, language, as a social product, literally structures and shapes our experience of reality. This discursive approach to language and society was developed by later French philosophers, such as [[Michel Foucault]].