Editing Émile Durkheim (section)

==== 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]].