General Information On 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, 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.

A new theory has been introduced that suggests character of consciousness is correlated to the type of mnemonic encoding used in specific groups. For example, cohesive groups with informal structures usually represent major facets of a society as episodic memories. In turn, this creates influence on collective behaviors and ideologies. It usually leads to exclusive ethos, atmosphere that is indulgent and powerful solidarity.

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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