Durkheim I: Society and
Social Facts
February 6, 2012
Instructor: Sarah Whetstone
Emile Durkheim
“Father of Sociology”
(1858-1917)
• Born in Epinal, France in 1858
• Grew up in a Jewish family-- his
father was a rabbi.
• He was expected to follow tradition,
but instead he dropped out of
rabbinical school.
• Got into the prestigious Ecole
Normale Superieure, one of the best
colleges in France
Emile Durkheim
• Committed himself to establishing
sociology as a science, after drafting his
doctoral thesis, The Division of Labor in
Society, in 1886
• Appointed to teach the first official
course in social science at the
University of Bordeaux , completed
many of his great works there
• Known for four primary works:
o
o
o
o
o
The Division of Labor in Society
The Rules of Sociological Method
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Suicide
Died in 1917 at age 59
Influences on Durkheim
Importance
of religion in
social life
Scientific study
of morality
Comte’s use
of scientific
method to
study society
Spencer’s “organic
analogy” of societies:
idea of society as an
organism that
naturally evolves
Concern with cohesion,
function, order
Empirical
observation; link to
natural sciences
Commitment to
rationalism
Emile Durkheim’s Brain!
Durkheim – the “Functionalist”
“The laws governing the functioning and
evolution of animal organisms provide a
model for a natural science of society”
(134).
Durkheim argued that each part of the
social system functions to serve the whole,
just like the various organs in the human
body function to keep the whole organism
alive. Concerned with how things work
together to produce order.
Used the “organism” metaphor and other
concepts from biology to describe social
life.
Key Concepts: “The Rules of
Sociological Method” (1895)
• Social fact: a key concept in sociology, the domain of sociological
study, what the social “is”
• Sociology is the “study of social facts.”
• Social facts as sui generis phenomena
– External to the individual
– Objective “things”
– Related through cause/effect to other social facts
• Institution: a modern term for a social fact
• Rules of sociological method: basic principles for the study social facts
– how we should proceed
the
Social Facts
of life
EXTERNAL to INDIVIDUALS:
“any way of acting, whether fixed or not, capable of exerting
over the individual an external constraint”
– or -“any way of acting which is general over the whole of a given
society whilst having an existence of own, independent of
having an individual manifestation” (147).
CAN ACT ON INDIVIDUALS:
Values, cultural norms, institutions, or social structures
capable of shaping our behavior
Social Facts are “Sui Generis”
Latin for "of their own kind"
"The whole does not equal the sum of its parts; it is
something different, whose properties differ from those
displayed by the parts from which it is formed."
-Society is not just a collection of individuals, but has its own
characteristics independent of the individuals who comprise
it.
-Social facts correspond to the conception or experience that
the group shares, not just an individual’s thought or
experience.
-Social facts have constraining power.
Social facts are known through
other social facts: “Rules,” p. 141
“It is important to know not the way in which a particular
thinker individually represents a particular institution,
but the conception that the group has of it… This
conception is indeed the only socially effective one.
But it cannot be known through mere inner
observation, since it is not wholly and entirely within
any one of us; one must therefore find some external
signs which make it apparent. Furthermore, it did not
arise from nothing: it is itself the result of external
causes which must be known in order to be able to
appreciate its future role.”
SOCIAL FACTS EXPLAIN OTHER SOCIAL FACTS
What are Social Facts?
Social institutions, social activities, roles, laws,
beliefs, values, customs, norms, ways of acting
and thinking… FUZZY CONCEPT!
State forms, family types, property
rights, punishment, notions of
responsibility, religious beliefs,
language, signs, proper behavior,
kinds of political authority ….
SOCIAL NORMS AS SOCIAL FACTS:
THE ELEVATOR EXPERIMENT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJIO-xOD364&feature=related
Using the Sociological Imagination is a
way of seeing Social Facts…
• Sociological Imagination links personal
troubles to public issues
• Examples:
– Divorce
– Poverty
– Suicide – as famously studied by Durkheim
himself!
– Racial composition of our social networks
– Drug abuse
Small Group Discussion: Social
Facts
Get in your groups and come up with a
social fact we have not mentioned.
– Define the social fact and explain how it is a
collective reality, external to the individual.
– How does the social fact also act upon
individuals to shape behavior?
– How might we study the social fact as an
“objective thing?” Can we measure it? How?
– What other social facts can be linked to your
social fact to explain it?
Discuss these questions and nominate one or two members to share with
class.
Rules for Explanation of Social Facts
– We must treat social facts as objective “things”
• Look for social facts in “objective outcomes”
– We must separate cause and function (148)
– The causes of a social fact’s specific form lie in
external conditions--other social facts.
• We explain social facts with other social facts
– “The function of a social fact must always be
sought in the relationship that is bears to some
social end” (155).
• Durkheim as functionalist – segments of society function
to ultimately maintain social order
Small Group Discussion: Rules of
Sociological Method
1) Move through the “Rules” section –
Durkheim’s methodology– and see if you can
find any part of it to critique. What might be
some potential problems or obstacles to
doing sociology this way?
2) Do you agree with D’s functionalist
perspective that all social segments must
function to maintain social order?
3) Think about Marx as a scholar-activist and
compare that to the kind of scholar D seems
to be– Similarities, differences?