hat pre-modern forms of control (i.e. executions, tortures, etc.) have given way to more psychological forms of control. To Foucault what amounts to truth is something that is manufactured by the processes of power in society. Power is orchestrated through social institutions in a way that manufactures a form of truth to Foucault.
Despite the differences in their theories and views on society, labor, economics, power and individualism, all three of these sociological theoristsÆ writings express the following contention: Reality is a social construction that is reinforced by class distinctions, a reality whose norms, values and codes of behavior are imposed by elites on the working class through institutions, a working class that is locked in social conflict with the elite class for control, power, and share of resources.
In his most significant work The Division of Labour, Durkheim (1964) attempted to identify the social impact of the division of labor in modern society. He arrived at two main conclusions based on such specialization. The first was that the division of labor changes the nature of the binds that unit society. The second was that the division of labor encourages individualism at the expense of community, to a threatening degree for society. Morality and society were an important focus of Durkheim. Moral authority, individualism, and freedom are mutually exclusive opposites in his view. This is because to be free does not mean to be free to follow oneÆs individual inexhaustible desires. Instead, being free means enjoying membership in society, where one is bound to the moral constructs of that society in order to enjoy the benefits of societal protection. Durkheim argues that by allowing society to protect oneself, one is also making oneself dependent upon society. However, Durkheim viewed this dependence as liberating and not confining.
To be free, or moral individualism, then, is a matter of bei...