A Social Fact Is Every Way Of

For A Long Time It Has Been Known That The First Systems Of Representations With Which Men Have Pictured To Themselves The World And Themselves Were Of Religious Origin. There Is No Religion That Is Not A Cosmology At The Same Time That It Is A Speculation Upon Divine Things. If Philosophy And The Sciences Were Born Of Religion, It Is Because Religion Began By Taking The Place Of The Sciences And Philosophy.

At This Point, An Urgent Question Arises: [...] Is It Our Duty To Seek To Become A Thorough And Complete Human Being, One Quite Sufficient Unto Himself; Or, On The Contrary, To Be Only A Part Of A Whole, The Organ Of An Organism? Briefly, Is The Division Of Labor, At The Same Time That It Is A Law Of Nature, Also A Moral Rule Of Human Conduct; And, If It Has This Latter Character, Why And In What Degree?

Faith Is Not Uprooted By Dialectic Proof; It Must Already Be Deeply Shaken By Other Causes To Be Unable To Withstand The Shock Of Argument.

Our Whole Social Environment Seems To Us To Be Filled With Forces Which Really Exist Only In Our Own Minds.

The Totality Of Beliefs And Sentiments Common To The Average Members Of A Society Forms A Determinate System With A Life Of Its Own. It Can Be Termed The Collective Or Creative Consciousness.