Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist who is considered one of the founders of modern sociology. One of his key contributions to the field was the concept of social facts, which he saw as the building blocks of society. In this essay, we will explore Durkheim's ideas about social facts and how they relate to the study of society.
According to Durkheim, social facts are the external, objective phenomena that shape the behavior and attitudes of individuals within a society. They include things like laws, customs, morals, and institutions, and they exert a powerful influence on the way people act and think. Durkheim argued that social facts are not simply the product of individual choices or preferences, but are instead the result of social forces that operate at a higher level than the individual.
One of the key characteristics of social facts is that they are "exogenous," meaning that they come from outside the individual and are not directly under their control. For example, laws are created by the government and are enforced by the state, and therefore are not something that an individual can choose to ignore or modify at will. This exogenous nature of social facts is what gives them their power and influence over the behavior of individuals.
Durkheim saw social facts as the foundation of social life, and he believed that they played a crucial role in shaping the behavior and attitudes of individuals. He argued that social facts could be studied in a scientific manner, just like any other aspect of the natural world, and that understanding them was essential for understanding society as a whole.
Durkheim believed that social facts could be grouped into two categories: material and moral. Material social facts are those that are tangible and physical, such as buildings, tools, and other artifacts. Moral social facts, on the other hand, are intangible and relate to the values, beliefs, and norms that shape the behavior of individuals within a society.
Durkheim's concept of social facts has had a lasting influence on the study of sociology and has been further developed and refined by other sociologists in the years since his work. Today, social facts continue to be an important part of the sociological landscape and are studied by scholars around the world as a way of understanding the complex forces that shape society and the behavior of individuals within it.