In Part I of this book I have attempted to provide an authoritative account of Durkheim's usage of the concept of the (or as I think we may now say, a) common or collective consciousness of society. In order to do this I have outlined in some detail Durkheim's general concept of morality, as explained by him in his still relatively little-known book Moral Education, and I have drawn from this his particular discussion of the concept of the or a collective consciousness of society. I have done this in order to see if it is possible to translate authoritatively into English the supposedly untranslatable sociological concept la conscience collective ou commune without losing any part of the meaning that Durkheim intended by this term in the original French – a nuance that would perhaps only be understood by a native French speaker and a professional sociologist at that – and I have argued that this is possible. Absolutely no meaning is lost, I claim, but rather clarity gained, by the translation of this phrase as ‘the common or collective consciousness’ of society.

I have also argued strongly for the view that we should always prefer to use the term ‘consciousness’ to the term ‘conscience’, and that no meaning is lost in English by doing so.