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.

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 discusses this topic in four of his books, including The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Suicide, Rules of Sociological Method, and The Division of Labor in Society. He maintained that in primitive or traditional groups a totemic religion is present and has a great effect on unity of members. This is done through developing common consciousness. In these kinds of societies, which center around tribal, clan or family relationships, the traits of consciousness of a person are shared among all in a society, creating mechanical solidarity through a shared likeness.

The concept and term is used outside of the social theory presented by Durkheim. There are several things categorized under this term that represent society of the modern day. This term is used by parapsychologists and sociologists.

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 newer theory being used suggests that character of consciousness is connected to the form of mnemonic encoding in a group. For instance, groups that are cohesive and have informal set ups usually present major facets of society as episodic memories. This influences that collective ideologies and behaviors, which often leads to indulgent atmosphere, solidarity and exclusive ethos.

In every society, there are different groups, such as organizations, regions, family, nations, community. These units each have their own capacities to think, act, judge, conceptualize, reflect and reform. The varying behaviors identified between the groups will differ based on the varying consciousness. In other words, variations are thought to include 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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