Evaluate Durkheim’s view that humans are partly driven by selfish biological needs as well by moral values.

Durkheim believes that society has a reality of its own over and above the individuals who are involved in it. Members of society are constrained by ‘social facts’ by ‘ways of acting, thinking and feeling, external to the individual and endowed with a power of coercion, by reason in which they control him.’ Beliefs and moral codes are passed on from one generation to the next and shared by the individuals who make up a society. Durkheim is free to treat society as a system which obeys its own laws. He is now in a position to ’seek the explanation on social life in the nature of society itself.’
The explanation of social facts lies in society itself. There are two types of ways to explain this; the first method involves determining the cause of a social fact, seeking to explain its origin. In Durkheim’s view, the determining cause of a social fact should be required among the states of individual consciousness. Moreover, the explanations of social facts also involve an analysis of its function in society, its contribution to the general needs of the social organism and its function in the establishment of social order. Durkheim made two main distinctions between social facts--material and nonmaterial social facts. Material social facts, he explained, have to do with the physical social structures which exert influence on the individual. It is something that can be touched, evolving because of society's shared belief that it serves a purpose. Nonmaterial social facts are the values, norms and other conceptually held beliefs. Social facts continue in existence because they contribute in some way to the maintenance of society, because they serve ‘some social end.’
Most of Durkheim’s work is concerned with functional analysis that seeks to understand the functions of social facts. He assumes that society has certain functional prerequisites, the most important of which is the need for social order. Social order is needed because of human nature and Durkheim had a homo duplex of this human nature, that is the believe that humans have two sides to their nature. One side is the selfish and the egoistical. Selfish biological needs are those like the need to satisfy hunger, so basically they look after their own needs. The other side of the human nature is the ability to believe in moral values. This is useful to make social life possible. Another thing that has to do with selfishness is anomie. Anomie is a normlessness situation where an individual is only concerned with himself in society. This is a type of individualism. This anomic situation will result in a society that lacks norms and does whatever one likes.
To continue with the topic of social facts, Durkheim studied social facts with the relation to suicide. Durkheim believed that the suicide grade was determined by the relationship between individuals and society. He found four different types of suicide which are Altruistic, Egoistic, Fatalistic and Anomic suicide. Altruistic suicide takes place when an individual is so integrated in society that they sacrifice their own life out of a sense of duty to others. Egoistic suicide is resulted from individuals being insufficiently regulated into the social group that they do not feel a sense of belonging. Fatalistic suicide is when society restricts the individuals too much for example the slaves because they have no freedom and lastly, anomic suicide is when society does not regulate the individual sufficiently that when traditional norms and values come disrupted, society’s guidelines becomes increasingly unclear.
In conclusion, Durkheim argues that society has a reality of its own over and above the individual who comprise it. Beliefs and moral codes are passed on from one generation to the next which are shared by the individuals who make up society. So therefore, it is not the consciousness of the individual that direct behaviour but common beliefs and sentiments that transcend the individual that shape his/ her consciousness.