4.03 Mead & Durkheim
Habermas finds in the work
of George Herbert Mead (1863 - 1931) and Emile Durkheim (1858 - 1917) concepts,
which can be used to free Weber's theory of rationalisation from the aporias of
the Philosophy of Consciousness. Mead's most productive concept is his
theoretical base of communication and Durkheim's is his idea of social
integration. Mead also stressed the social character of perception. Our first
encounters are social.[1]
If
the individual reaches his self only through communication with others, only
through the elaboration of social processes by means of significant
communication, then the self could not antidate the social organism. The latter
would have to be there first." (Mead, 1962, p233)
What we see here is an
emphasis on the primacy of the social nature of communication and an indication
of how human communication arises from the exchange of gestures that are only
gradually elaborated into a complex of symbolic codes.
Human communication arising
from an exchange of gestures, seems to vividly describe the communicative
situation in an Exploding Cinema show. Often it is exactly gestures that are
represented in the films shown and exchanged in the auditorium. There is an
ever-present kaleidoscope of this genesis of language - it may be that it is
this refreshing spring, which is the excitement and value of Exploding Cinema
rather than any particular message - the feeling of being immersed in a
bubbling communicative flux.
Emile Durkheim's
ethnographical studies revealed the symbolic structure of the sacred expressed
in sacred objects and 'a non-positivistic interpretation of collective
consciousness'.[2] By assigning
important feelings to externalised symbols through ritual actions people
achieve a unison of intention. Habermas argues that Durkheim misses the crucial
importance of communicative action, which must precede the co-ordination of
actions to achieve social solidarity.
The discussion of Emile
Durkheim's ideas of the function of the sacred in creating social cohesion
gives some insight into the Exploding Cinema vision of a democratic film
culture. The anarchistic vision of social justice and an egalitarian basis for
the production of meaning is analogous to the sacred that goes beyond the real.
Habermas points out how communicative action mediates between what he calls the
'ritually preserved fund of social solidarity' and current relations.[3]
According to Durkheim one of
the things that distinguishes humans from animals is that they can conceive of
an ideal form of their society. The sacred may be seen in this way as something
beyond the experiential. Durheim goes so far as to suggest that a group cannot
have a stable social cohesion without projecting such an idealised image of
itself.[4]
The
more that deliberation and reflection and a critical spirit play a considerable
part in the course of public affairs, the more democratic the nation. It is
the less democratic when lack of consciousness, uncharted customs, the obscure
sentiments and prejudices that evade investigation, predominate.
[5]