Emile Durkheim: Exemplar for an Integrated Sociological Paradigm?

Abstract

Stipulating that an adequate integrated paradigm for sociology must embrace two basic social dimensions, macroto micro-social and the objectivesubjective aspects of social life, we ask whether Durkheim's work meets these requirements. We find that although his work can contribute to this end (with its recognition of multiple levels of reality, the relations among these levels and their change through history, and with its marked contributions at the macrosubjective level) it is nonetheless an inadequate exemplar for an integrated paradigm. His work is marred by one-way causal attributions, by an overemphasis on the macro-subjective level, by an undeveloped conception of human nature, and a restricted view of science. The objective in this paper is to assess the degree to which tmile Durkheim would be an adequate exemplar for an integrated sociological paradigm.I Before we can get to the body of this paper, an assessment of Durkheim's work from this perspective, we need to outline the need for, and parameters of, an integrated paradigm. In his earlier work the senior author of this paper (Ritzer, a, b) argued that sociology was dominated by three paradigms which he labeled the social facts, social definition, and social behavior paradigms. Briefly, those sociologists who work within the social facts paradigm focus on macrostructures, look to the work of Emile Durkheim as their exemplar, use structural-functional and conflict theory, and tend more often to employ the interview/questionnaire and historical/comparative methods. Those who accept the social definition paradigm focus on the action and interaction that result from the minding (i.e., creative mental) process, accept Max Weber's work on social action as the exemplar, employ various theories including symbolic interactionism, and phenomenology-ethnomethodology, and are more prone in their research to use the observational *We would like to thank Jere Cohen and Whitney Pope for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 01981 The University of North Carolina Press. 0037-7732/81/040966-95$03.00