ABSTRACT
Durkheim's formulation is unsatisfactory on empirical grounds. The beliefs which define and integrate a given group may bring it into conflict with other groups and alienate it from society as a whole. Analogous considerations apply in measuring the degree to which a given individual is integrated into society. "We take pan in several groups and there are in us several collective consciences" (105n). Durkheim' s implied assumption is that one may measure the degree to which individuals are integrated into society by summing the strength of the collective consciences within them. Clearly, however, their level of integration is a function, not only of the strength and number of these elements in them, but also of the relations among the specific contents of these collective consciences. The consciences of the groups to which a person belongs may well conflict and reciprocally enfeeble one another (99,102), and when they do so the result may be anomie.
