Collective Consciousness, Morphology, and Collective Representations: Durkheim's Sociology of Knowledge, 1894-1900

This paper gives an overview of Durkheim's ideas concerning knowledge in the broad sense in the period indicated. It shows that the notion of collective consciousness was abandoned, and the principle of morphological determinism was retained, largely for rhetorical purposes. Durkheim's contradictory statements attest to a slow drift away from the conception which divides society into two parts, one determining the other. It is shown that the notion of collective representation replaces earlier conceptualizations. Durkheim considered collective representations as constituting a realm of social facts--indeed, the social sphere par excellence. The notion of collective representations played a crucial role in Durkheim's attempts to demonstrate the independence of sociology.