The ‘Individual’ in the Writings of Émile Durkheim

Abstract

During his life-time, Durkheim's methodological writings were notoriously subject to controversy, and his ‘sociologism’ was widely condemned. These early critiques, often totally misinformed as to the real character of Durkheim's views, have long since ceded place to critical interpretations of Durkheim's writings which are founded upon a more adequate understanding of the themes and the dilemmas inherent in his sociology. Nonetheless, it is arguable that we still await a treatment which fully explores the strengths and weaknesses of Durkheim's method. One main reason for this is that most secondary interpreters of Durkheim have failed to connect his analytical discussion (and rejection) of individualism as a methodological approach to social theory with his developmental conception of the emergence of individualism as a morality brought into being by the growth of the differentiated division of labour. It is commonly accepted-and, indeed, he himself stressed this very strongly-that Durkheim's methodological ideas must be evaluated in relation to their concrete implementation in his more empirical works. But this is generally taken to mean showing how successfully or otherwise he ‘applied’ his methodological views in his other studies. The point I wish to make in this paper is that there is a reciprocal relationship between Durkheim's substantive discussion of the development of individualism and his abstract formulations of sociological method. Durkheim is often regarded as being fervently “anti-individualist”. But in fact his works contain a vigorous defence of individualism—understood in a specific way. In other words, Durkheim's writings represent an attempt to detach “liberal individualism”, regarded as a conception of the characteristics of the modern social order, from “methodological individualism”.