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.

Conscience, a French word, may be translated in the English language as conscience or conscious. It may also refer to awareness or perception. Some choose to use the word conscience as a untranslatable technical term or foreign word without considering its meaning in English. Generally, it does not reference moral conscience, but an understanding that is shared when it comes to social norms. When it comes to the word collective, Durkheim clearly states that he is not hypostatizing or reifying the concept. To him, this word merely refers to something common to most individuals, a social fact.

Durkheim employs this term often in four books: Suicide, The Division of Labor in Society, Rules of Sociological Method, and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. He thought that in traditional or primitive societies a totemic religion exists and plays a big part in uniting members. This is possible through development of common consciousness. In these societies, which are based around clan, family or tribal relationships, contents of consciousness of an individual are shared among others in the society. This creates mechanical solidarity via 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, a lecturer of sociology, used this term in the early half of the 2000s. Kelsey used it in describing people within a social unit being aware of shared traits and circumstances. This awareness led people to act as a community in order to create solidarity. Rather than living as separate individuals, people came together in order to create dynamic groups that shared knowledge and resources.

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 is a term that was coined in the 1890s by Emile Durkheim. This French sociologist applied the term when referencing shared beliefs, moral attitudes and ideas among societies. The concept has been employed by other sociologists and psychologists when referencing various ideas and theories of the modern day.




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