DURKHEIM'S APPROACH

Key Features of Durkheim's Approach to Analyzing Social Life as shown in Suicide

Key Features of Durkheim's Approach to Analyzing Social Life as shown in Suicide

Introduction

Emile Durkheim was a sociologist from France, believed to be one amongst the originators of sociology. He is ascribed for establishing brisk methodology which adjoins the empirical research with sociological theory. All through his life, Durkheim delivered and published several lectures on a variety of sociological concerns like crime, means to study sociology, religion, division of labor, and suicide, amongst several other sociological facets. “Suicide: A study in sociology”, “The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life”, “The Division of Labor in Society” and “The Rules of Sociological Method”, are amongst his most famous publications. All through his life, he was specifically interested in three main objectives (Abrams, 1982). The first amongst them was to understand and analyze means in which integrity and coherence can be preserved in the society specifically when concerns like religious and ethnic background could no more be neglected. This compelled him to write on topics like religion, laws, education, etc. Durkheim's second objective was to establish a society as a reputable and new academic domain established on the basis of scientific methodologies. Finally, Durkheim intended to comprehend the practical implications of the scientific knowledge.

Durkheim's Approach to Analyzing Social Life as shown in “Suicide”

Durkheim undertakes the assessment of suicide in a pretty statistical and quantitative way. While he could not get hold of really complete or precise information or complicated statistical procedures, his method is consummate in presenting the way to test hypotheses, rebuff inappropriate elucidations for suicide, classify through numerous possible elucidations, and try to administer for superfluous factors. We may take into consideration the way Durkheim analyzes cosmic issues like season or weather as an example of Durkheim's approach. In his publication, “Suicide: A study in sociology”, Durkheim notes that rate of suicide all over the world is higher in the months of summer, that neither of the countries has an exemption to this, and that rate of suicide in the warmer months of the year to the latter colder months is almost equivalent in every country. Durkheim presents that this has resulted in many analysts to express that heat enhances the excitability of a person's nervous system. However, suicide can be caused due to depression instead of over excitement and heat possibly cannot serve the way on the two causes. Moreover, a more intimate assessment by Durkheim takes into consideration, the variations in temperature and reveals that rate of suicides increase with the increase in temperature, and this rate reaches heights even before the rate of temperature does (Aries, 1988). Additionally, in case, temperature causes suicides, warmer countries might be anticipated to have a higher suicide rate as compared to the colder ones, but the records show the happening of opposite case.

An allied elucidation taken into consideration by Durkheim is that vast alterations in temperature are related to the rate of suicide, yet again he explores that there is no ...