What To Know About Collective Consciousness

By Sonya Riley


Collective consciousness, also seen as collective conscience, refers to a specific set of shared moral attitudes, ideas and beliefs. These shared things operate as a unified source within various societies. The term was first coined by a French sociologist by the name of Emile Durkheim in a book he wrote titled Division of Labor in Society, published in 1893.

The French word conscience is comparable to, and translated as, conscious or conscience in English. It may also be defined as perception or awareness in this language. Some people use the word conscience as if it is a non-translatable foreign word or technical term. In general, it is not relate to moral conscience, but instead, a shared understanding in terms of social norms. As far as collective, Durkheim made it clear that he is not reifying or hypostatizing this concept. For him, the word refers to a social fact, something common to most people.

Durkheim use this terminology frequently in the literature that he published, including four books: The Division of Labor in Society, Suicide, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, and Rules of Sociological Method. He believed that in primitive or traditional societies, which are based around tribal, family or clan relationships, there is a totemic religion that plays a major part in uniting the members. This is done through the development of a common consciousness. In such societies, the contents of consciousness of a person is largely shared with other members of a society. This is what creates a mechanical solidarity because of shared likeness.

The concept and term is used outside of the social theory presented by Durkheim. There are several things categorized under this term that represent society of the modern day. This term is used by parapsychologists and sociologists.

Sociology lecturer Mary Kelsey employed this term in the early portion of the 2000s in order to describe individuals in a social group becoming aware of the shared circumstances and shared traits. As a result of this awareness, these people acted as a community to achieve solidarity. Instead of existing as separate beings, persons come together to form dynamic groups in order to share both resources and knowledge.

There is a new theory that suggests the character of this consciousness is relative to the kind of mnemonic encoding applied in certain groups. For instance, cohesive groups that have an informal structure tend to represent important aspects of a community as episodic memories. This, in turn, has an influence that is predictable on the collective ideology and behaviors. It typically leads to indulgent atmosphere, solidarity that is strong, ethos that is exclusive, and more.

In every society, there are different groups, such as organizations, regions, family, nations, community. These units each have their own capacities to think, act, judge, conceptualize, reflect and reform. The varying behaviors identified between the groups will differ based on the varying consciousness. In other words, variations are thought to include practical meaning.

The term collective consciousness was first used in the 1890s by sociologist Emile Durkheim. The Frenchman used this term to refer to shared ideas, beliefs and moral attitudes within societies. This concept has been used by other psychologists and sociologists to identify various theories and ideas.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...