Emile Durkheim researched different areas of suicide. He believed suicide was not a personal decision, rather a social one. The influence of society can better determine how someone will feel in the future towards suicide. He believed there were two main factors involved, integration and regulation.
Integration determines how many people an individual is interacting with and surround by, such as support groups. Regulation is determined by how many rules are put in place.
The first type of suicide is Egoistic. This occurs when there is too low of integration. For instance there is increased suicide with Protestants and lower with Catholics due to the connection they feel with the religion. Therefore, people are more likely to be suicidal if they are not involved in any religion because then they do not have that extra support system with them and that sense of belonging.
On the other hand, there is Altruistic suicide. This is when the level of integration is too high. An example of this would be suicide bombers or soldier in war. They make decisions based on beliefs that benefit the group rather than themselves. They are going into a situation knowing there is a high likely hood they might die. With such a high level of integration and sense of belonging, this is not an issue to them.
The third type is Anomic suicide. Anomic suicide consists of very low regulation. This heightens the sense of the unknown. An example of this one would be economic instability or recession.
The last type of suicide Durkheim talked about was Fatalistic suicide. This occurs when there is far too much regulation. Some examples of this would be the military, prisons, or even slavery. People in this category feel there is no other choice than to abide by the rules and feel death is the only way out of it.
Overall, Emilie Durkheim could sum up the main categories of suicide by observing how each individual felt in terms of integration and regulation. It is important that society finds and equal balance between these two items.
Karl Marx believed in ideologies. To simplify, ideologies are belief systems determined by the economic infrastructure of society. They served to
justify the existing property relations, and obscure the reality of
exploitation. He counted religion, philosophy, law, and literature as
ideological since all worked like a distorting mirror.
Marx used an analogy called 'camera obscura,' This analogy states that the camera lens is like ideology - it obscures images. Through ideology we experience the world. An example of this is would be capitalism as equal and free. Ideologies can hide contradictions by a few different ways. First, they can make them appear 'normal'. Second, they can eliminate evidence of contradictions, and lastly by presenting capitalist contradictions as actually issues in human nature. An example of this one would be stereotypes of the unemployed - like saying they are all lazy and don't care enough when in reality that is false.
In a modern context,
Marxists would see the existing values taught in schools as
ideological. Equality of opportunity: people cling to this and believe
it implicitly, but Marxists see it as an obvious untruth, designed to
generate confidence in the status quo and to blame the underclass for not trying hard enough.
Auguste Comte had a very interesting view on the social dynamics. He believed in the Law of Succession, also known as the Law of Three Stages. He stated that when studying society, we should compare the cultural system to the structural system through the Law of Three Stages. Through this concept, Comte was able to better distinguish how society functions and what is important. The three stages he mentions are theological, metaphysical, and positivistic. The image below shows what was all occurring in each era.
The theological stage explained that things were based on religion. Therefore people would rely on explanations that religion could answer. This stage also relied on small groups.
The next stage, metaphysical, relies on philosophy. This is controlled by the state, law or military.
The last stage is positivistic. This meant that people relied on science. It resembles the same ideas as the enlightenment - reasoning through science. Mutual dependence is important in this stage as well as coordination of functions by the state and general spirit.
One thing I found interesting about this concept is that Aguste Comte turned it into an analogy stating that society is becoming like a machine. If one part of it were to break, it will affect the rest. This means that if one of these stages did not function properly, it would affect society as a whole.
It is interesting to see how in these days this concept is still pretty relevant. There are different aspect and stages in today's society that affect how we live our everyday life. If one thing were to change, it could drastically alter the rest of society and how everything is functioning.
Auguste Comte had great reason to believe society should be examined by comparing the cultural system to the structural system. By doing so, we now have a better insight on society as a whole.
