Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/487

 SUICIDE IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT STUDIES 473

something "external" to the individual, endowed with a power of "constraint" upon him, therefore not deriving from him.

This theory has been bitterly criticised by Tarde, 1 who accused Durkheim of reproducing in the field of sociology the onto- logical delusion of mediaeval realism, by conceiving society as an essence or a transcendental unity. We do not believe Tarde's interpretation of Durkheim's theory to be entirely correct, although it might apparently be justified by some obscure pas- sages of Durkheim's essay on the Mtthode* When Durkheim emphasizes the antagonism between the concept of the individ- ual and that of society, he does not, of course, suppose the pos- sibility of a society without individuals, but only means that the aggregation of human beings termed " society " represents a reality of a different order from that represented by every indi- vidual, separately and singly considered. Nothing is more scientific than such a position. The process of cosmical evolu- tion would be really inexplicable if we should fail to find in a complex fact new properties, new qualifications, widely differ- ing from those of its single elements. Social fact has undoubt- edly properties of its own that make it quite dissimilar to the individuals producing it by their aggregation, just in the same way as the biological phenomenon shows peculiarities unknown to its vital elements. In other words, we find in collective or social life the production of forces or powers not given in the individual organism. Even from the Tardian 3 sociological stand- point, it is not permitted to deny the peculiar distinctive char- acter of the social fact versus its elements, i. e. % the individuals. Invention, through imitation, undergoes a complex elaboration, thus reappearing in an impersonal and objective form through the products of social activity named institutions. Durkhcim's error consists, I believe, in having misinterpreted the true rela-

1 See " La Sociologie e*le*mentaire " in Annalei de rinstilut International de Sofia logit, 1895.

" L'individu tfcarte, il ne rcstc que la socie*te*." />j A'*s/fs, p. 125. See also pp. 9-10 and 37.

'For a more detailed statement of Tarde's theory see my paper in Political S. Quarterly, September. 1897.