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The Components Of 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.

This concept is used outside of the Durkheimian social theory. There are numerous forms of what may be known under this terminology found in modern societies that other sociologists have identified. This term is even used by parapsychologists.

Mary Kelsey is a lecturer of sociology who employed the term in the early 2000s. She used this word to describe people who exist in a social group and are aware of the shared circumstances and traits. Said awareness leads people to act as a community in order to have solidarity. Instead of living as an individual, people join forces to create groups that are dynamic and share 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.

Society consists of numerous collective groups, for example: organizations, regions, nations, family, community. These units have capabilities to act, decide, think, reform, judge, reflect, and conceptualize. Differing behaviors among such groups vary based on the different collective consciousness, which is to say variations in consciousness may have a practical meaning.

Collective consciousness was first introduced in an 1893 book written by Emile Durkheim. He was a French sociologist who used this term to reference shared ideas, beliefs and moral attitudes found among different societies. This particular concept has since been used by psychologists and sociologists in order to describe ideas and theories relative to the modern world.




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