Functional Analysis in Durkheim's Work

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Other Title
  • 機能分析の方法 : デュルケーム理論の問題

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Emile Durkheim's version of functional analysis, coming out of positivism, has exerted considerable influence on contemporary functionalist schools in sociology and anthropology. Aiming to understand the basic nature of this influence, this article gives a critical description of the analysis developed by Durkheim in his works. The argument herein is presented in four related steps. First, we undertake to analyse the various ways in which Durkheim used the word "function" (la fonction), being careful to avoid certain confusion with the large assembly of terms used indifferently and almost synonymously with "function". In so doing, we recognize an analytical distinction between function which the term "correspondence" implies and need (i.e., the necessary condition of existence) to which the function is related. Next, by examining his major works, we demonstrate that he uses the term function only when discussing some parts or aspects of a society and that his analysis of society is not exclusively concerned with unity. Third, we suggest that although he was primarily concerned with the world of the "social fact" and portrayed it as concrete in order to justify the stability that the term "fact" suggests, it remains true that he was entirely concerned with the essentially dynamic nature of sɔciety. So it is alsɔ noted that his concept of a sɔciety's need might more aptly be described as being the immanent consequences of its development. This is a reasɔn why his functional approach differs radically from modern functionalists in his preoccupation with society in process. This paper finally consider his normative commitment to a particular way of functional approach. After the fashion of Merton, Durkheim's moral imperative permits the pouring of ideological content into the bottles of functionalism, even the bottles themselves are neutral to their contents. We recognize conclusively, however, that Durkheim's work has not been exclusively pursued from normative version. His work seems to have demonstrated the crux of functional analysis, capable of satisfactory empirical application.

Journal

  • 哲學研究

    哲學研究 45 (9), 727-757, 1974-05-30

    THE KYOTO PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY (The Kyoto Tetsugaku-Kai)

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