Bergson on Durkheim: Societysui generis

Abstract

This paper contends that Henri Bergson’s The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (1977 [1932]) is in pervasive and critical engagement with Émile Durkheim. We argue that both thinkers advance a sui generis concept of society that frames the organizing problem of their exchange: the relationship between society and biology. Our analysis traces the concept of society sui generis through Durkheim’s Division of Labor (1893) and Rules of Sociological Method (1895) to its reconfiguration in Bergson’s Two Sources. We argue that Durkheim’s concept of society sui generis avoids biological reductionism because it highlights the role of moral obligation in separating society from biology. Bergson assumes that social and biological life are inseparable and thereby disputes the privilege Durkheim gives to obligation. For Bergson, the sui generis nature of society is expressed by the singularity of human society in grasping the creative power of life.