Durkheim and Social Facts
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Social facts were part of Durkheim's attempts to establish society as an entity sui generis.

Such things as sleeping and eating are inherently individual acts. If only these acts were present, then there would be no room for sociology, because these acts would come under the jurisdiction of biology and psychology. However, argued Durkheim, there are other acts that are inherently social, such as fulfilling one's duties as a citizen, or protesting. These acts prove the existence of a social reality in addition to an individual reality.

In order to qualify as a social fact, phenomena needed to satisfy two criterion:

• They must exist outside the individual
• They must exist prior to the individual

They are therefore a new variety of phenomena, to which the descriptor "social" must be applied.

The Importance of Social Facts

Social facts are crucial in challenging utilitarian thinking and contemporary discussion from individual motives to the laws of society. Furthermore, a necessary corollary of social facts is that individual actions derive from society. Social Darwinism is incompatible with the existence of social facts.

Characteristics of Social Facts

Social facts have three properties:

• General - They are general throughout society. They are diffused throughout the group.
• External - Social facts exist outside the individual, are prior to him, and exist indepently of their will.
• Constraining - They often have some sort of sanction, manifested in coercion of ostracism, against any individual who resists them.

Observing Social Facts

Social facts, for Durkheim, are things, not ideas. Things have reality, and can be observed. As things, then can be studied in the same way that natural science can study molecules.

Social facts are not produced by individual will, but by external social coercion.

The problems with observing social facts is dealt with in The Rules of the Sociological Method. One such problem is trying to distinguish social facts from a priori impressions (See Kant, Aristotle). In order to avoid the confusion between the two, it is necessary to:

• Avoid all preconceptions (so as to maintain objectivity)
• Define clearly what is to be investigated
• Ensure that the group of phenomena being studied are defined by their external characteristics

Other Notes in this Category

1. Durkheim - Crime as a Normal, rather than Pathological Phenomenon
2. Durkheim and Social Facts
3. Durkheim and the Division of Labour in Society
4. Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

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