An Analysis on the Nature of Morality and Its Social Projections in Durkheim's Sociology

Abstract

Durkheim, one of the pioneering representatives of the sociological tradition, placed religion and morality at the center of his studies throughout his professional life. Therefore, it would not be wrong to call Durkheim's sociology the sociology of morality. It is important to examine Durkheim's intense interest in morality, his purpose, and implications in order to understand his understanding of morality and his relationship with sociology. Also, this study has not remained indifferent to this interest, and has made it the subject of analyzing the theoretical and practical dimensions of his understanding of morality. Durkheim could not control but focus on the issue of religion. Because morality, which has an important place in the field of social regulations and is one of the key concepts of Durkheim's sociology, largely depends on the reference of religion and is positioned parallel to religion. To understanding Durkheim's sociology does not seem possible without understanding the value he gives to subject of the morality. Durkheim examined an abstract issue such as morality and made it the subject of sociology, which is a modern discipline. On the one hand, Durkheim was influenced by Kant's rational morality, which was free from theological considerations, and on the other hand, he adopted Aristotle's 'ethics', which he called a practical science based on action. The importance of this the study is that Durkheim's theoretical and practical evaluation of the issue of morality is analyzed on the basis of the social reflections of morality and its relationship with religion and society. Durkheim's most characteristic contribution to the sociology of religion is his acceptance of religion as the most important social phenomenon in terms of its effect on collective consciousness and its relation to morality, and his view of society as the basis of social phenomena. According to him, among social phenomena, morality is a social reality, and this reality is not the reality of abstract theories and ideas, but the reality of morality in action. This study aims to analyze the nature of morality in Durkheim's sociology, its necessity, source, continuity, reality, validity, and social manifestations. Moreover, it is aimed to make evaluations and analysis about his sociology and moral understanding as a result of this examination. Within the scope of this study, all of Durkheim's books on morality, which are the accessible in Turkish and English books, especially were examined. The study is presented within the framework of a comparative method by considering the causality and cause-effect relationship between concepts and phenomena. Durkheim, one of the pioneers of the positivist understanding in sociology, is in favor of a rational and secular morality. He struggled to free morality from the dominance of religion and made it the tool of sociology to give it freedom and adapt it to its own age. He turned a phenomenon with abstract, subjective metaphysical aspects into an object of science on a concrete objective rational ground. He used sociology, which he cared enough to call the science of morality, to identify and enforce moral rules. He is a conservative moralist who attaches great importance to social solidarity and integration. He prefers the believers of society to the believers of God. The extreme importance and value he attributed to society is considered sociologism. Durkheimian morality is an ideal secular morality that should be taught to all citizens and substituted as the rules of 'religion', which he calls 'society'. Durkheim attempted to dislocate the relationship between the individual and morality, society and morality, religion and morality, and the organic link in these relationships in rational and secular understanding.