The Rules of the Sociological Method (1895) - Durkheim Flashcards
What is the rule of the sociological method? What’s Durkheim’s approach to studying society?
To observe social facts and study these facts as “things”
What is a social fact, according to Durkheim?
A social fact is “every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on individuals an external constraint.” It exists outside individual consciousness and has an independent, coercive influence on people.
- overt manifestations of ideas in the human mind
What are examples of a social fact?
Institutions, laws, customs, language, moral values - they are collective representations of social behaviour
What is meant by the term “collective consciousness”?
Collective consciousness represents the shared beliefs, values, and norms of a society, which shape and influence social facts. It reflects societal solidarity and changes across different types of societies.
What is a social current?
Prevailing attitudes, beliefs, opinions, sentiments at a particular moment
fluid and temporary social facts that represent collective emotions or trends influencing individuals, such as public opinion or group enthusiasm.
What does Durkheim mean by studying social facts as ‘things’? Why does he insist on it?
He wants to establish sociology as a science, separate from others like philosophy and psychology.
By treating social facts as objective, external, and measurable phenomena, similar to physical objects, Durkheim emphasized their independence from individual consciousness.
- Objectivity: Durkheim strives for objectivity to make the discipline scientific. By characterizing social facts as “things,” he wanted to underscore their objective, tangible, and external nature. Free from personal biases or preconceived notions.
- Measurability: allows for the comparison of different societies and the identification of patterns and regularities.
What does Durkheim mean by the coercive nature of social facts?
Social facts exert pressure or constraints on individuals, compelling them to conform to societal norms. This coercion is seen in both formal systems (e.g., laws) and informal influences (e.g., social customs).
How do collective behaviors emerge, according to Durkheim?
Collective behaviors emerge from the way individuals associate and combine within society, not from the intrinsic properties of individuals themselves.
What is sui generis and why does Durkheim refer to social facts/phenomenon as sui generis?
Social facts are entities that are unique to the social realm and cannot be reduced to or explained solely by individual psychological factors. Social facts have a reality of their own, independent of individual consciousness, and they exert a coercive influence on individuals within a society.
Social reality has its own nature and should be studied on its own terms. This concept is fundamental to his approach in establishing sociology as a distinct science, separate from other disciplines such as psychology or biology.
Durkheim believed that society has properties and dynamics that cannot be fully understood by analyzing individuals in isolation; instead, one must recognize and study the unique characteristics of social facts as entities in their own right.
What is the role of emotions in research?
“our political and religious beliefs and our moral standards carry with them an emotional tone that is not characteristic of our attitude toward physical objects; consequently, this emotional character infects our manner of conceiving and explaining them.” (p. 32)
With more positivist frameworks like that of Durkheim, emotions are typically seen as subjective biases that should be controlled or minimized to ensure objectivity and rigor.
What does Durkheim say about the role of statistics in studying social facts?
Statistics help isolate and measure social facts, such as birth rates, marriage rates, or suicides, providing empirical evidence of collective phenomena.
What are Durkheim’s rules for observing social facts?
- Eradicate preconceptions: Avoid personal biases and mysticism.
- Define terms clearly: Identify inherent properties of social facts and group them accordingly.
- Be objective: Recognize that the target of study is always shifting and requires flexibility.
What does Durkheim mean by “Social facts are external to the individual, yet they constrain the individual’s actions”?
Social facts exist independently of individual consciousness but exert influence and control over individuals, shaping their behaviors and interactions.
So what’s wrong if things exist in the mind?
- If things exist only in the mind and are not considered external realities, the main issue from a positivist perspective relates to verifiability, objectivity, and social cohesion.
- Mental constructs that exist solely in the mind are subjective, which means they cannot be objectively verified or universally observed.
- If something only exists in individual minds, it cannot be generalized across society in a meaningful way because it is not a shared phenomenon.
- Take gravity for example… it cannot be subjective. It exists regardless of how one feels about them.
How is his methodology shaped by this insistence?
Positivist & Empirical
- Durkheim’s insistence on viewing social facts as external objects led to a methodological emphasis on objectivity. He aimed to remove the influence of individual bias by treating social facts as observable data that exist independently of personal interpretations.
- This objectivity aligns with the methods of natural sciences, where phenomena are studied without interference from subjective influences. [Remember his aim is to legitimize the field].
