so cites Durkheim's answer to Auguste Comte, whose theory of social solidarity "alwasy and everywhere necessitates the existence of a strongly formed consensus universel, or unity of moral belief."2
Durkheim's theory of society devolves upon the acknowledgment that individuals will have a mutual interest in something outside themselves and thereby form social units. As the complexity of the social units increases, so does the moral order of the society. Durkheim breaks down social life into two general types, mechanical and organic, with the latter proceeding from the completion of the former. In a mechanical society, which is relatively small in nature, the individual is defined in terms of his society. That is, each individual in the society shares its ideals, beliefs, goals, and to a large extent its occupations and activities. In other words, as Alpert notes in a discussion of Durkheim, the individuals in a mechanical society are distinguished by what Durkheim calls "the likeness of consciences."3 Alpert also characterizes this kind of so
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