collective representation

is a sociological conception of kant's categories of understanding. They function as bases for ethics as well as cognition.

provide Durkheim with a solution to one of his principal sociological problems: How is social order possible in a secularized world' For Durkheim, therefore, categories of understanding, conceived sociologically as collective representations, function as bases for ethics as well as cognition.' (NET)

is an internalized social prescription for thinking, acting, and feeling'. It is functionally equivalent to the kant's categories.

internalized social prescriptions for thinking, acting, and feeling' as [ethically] functionally equivalent to the categories' (NET)

is the basis for a rule of conduct which is felt by people, in effect, as a categorical imperative, compelling people to act in accord with the collective moral exigencies of society.

Durkheim conceives of collective representations as bases for rules of conduct which are felt by people, in effect, as categorical imperatives, compelling people to act in accord with the collective moral exigencies of society. For Durkheim, the moral authority of collective representations is essential to social consensus and a stable social order. Durkheim's concepts of the collective representation and the process of universalization, then, correspond to Kantian concepts, and Durkheim acknowledges the relevance of Kantian philosophy to his epistemological and moral considerations (1965: 494).' (NET)

collective representation, n.All

collective representation