Durkheim's appropriations from the biology of his time are not simple concessions to the biologically influenced mood of his day, sitting uneasily with his sociological theory. Though tightly bound to the rest of his work, this biology nevertheless has a very particular content, quite different from what is today referred to by the term Darwinism or the theory of evolution. It consists of a conception of life centred on the idea of an ascending linear series of living forms, graduated according to their complexity of organisation. In this fundamentally morphological understanding, competition, conflict and dialectics are not driving principles in the functioning and development of organised bodies. A re‐examination of this notion of biology enables us to understand the way that social conflict is theorised by Durkheim and, following him, by Halbwachs and Simiand, whose work shows a reference to such morphological thinking. This sheds light on the Durkheimians' conception of class relations and their rejection of Marxism and revolutionary socialism.
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