1. Durkheim and Sociology I: Social Facts

2. Main points
1. Durkheim wants to set up sociology as a properly “scientific” discipline
2. He models it on the “hard” natural sciences
3. He tries to prove “society” really exists;
It’s not just a collection of individuals
4. Main thing to examine: “social facts”
These strongly constrain and shape individuals’ thoughts and actions

3. OUTLINE Durkheim’s life Durkheim’s aims The new science of sociology
Social facts
Scientific method – positivism
The suicide study
Some problems
Assessment

4. Durkheim’s Life Born in 1858 – dies 1916 Assimilated Jewish family
Committed to French Republican ideals: liberty, equality & fraternity
Middle-of-the-road politics – reformist socialism

5. Main books The Division of Labour in Society (1893)
The Rules of Sociological Method (1895)
Suicide (1897)
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912)

6. Durkheim’s Aims To help reconstruct French society
War with Germany, 1870
Anti-Semitism
Industrial unrest
2) To set up sociology as a proper science
Scientifically rigorous
Objective knowledge
3) To set up sociology as a distinct discipline
Different from psychology

7. Durkheim’s Aims 4) Go beyond his predecessors
“Sociology” already coined by
Auguste Comte ( )
Durkheim influenced by Comte
Sociology is a science
Can be used to solve social problems
Durkheim wants to go beyond Comte
Comte’s ideas too simplistic
His version of sociology not “scientific” enough

8. The New Science of “Sociology”
Sociology’s subject matter: “Society”
Against utilitarianism:
Only individuals
Self-interested and calculating
“Society” really exists; it has an existence of its own
Society is more than the sum of its parts
i.e. society is more than just a collection of individuals

9. SOCIAL FACTS Society is a set of social facts
Social facts have two key features:
1) Social facts are external to the individual
2) Social facts are constraining – of the individual’s thoughts and actions

10. Social facts are “mental” in nature
a) They are shared thoughts and feelings
b) They are expressed in
language and symbols
c) They are shared – they have an
existence beyond each individual’s mind
d) Socialisation & education =
shared thoughts and feelings inculcated into the individual child
e) “Naturalisation” – taking as “natural” what has been socialised into you

11. Each individual has 2 sides
Purely “personal” side
– wholly individual character and
personality
2) Social side
- ways of thinking and feeling socialised into individual by social forces
- constantly reinforced by social facts
Pre-modern society: high level of 2)
Modern society: higher levels of 1).

12. Social facts are “moral” in nature
a) They divide the world up into “good” and “bad”, “moral” and “immoral”, “sacred” and “wicked”
b) They encourage an individual to act in ways that society defines as appropriate behaviour
c) They encourage an individual not to act in ways that society defines as inappropriate behaviour

13. Appropriate (socially sanctioned) behaviour is rewarded
Inappropriate (socially condemned) behaviour is punished
Breaking of everyday social norms:
low-level punishments

14. “If I do not submit to the conventions of society, if in my dress I do not conform to the customs observed in my country and in my class, the ridicule I provoke, the social isolation in which I am kept, produce …. punishment[s] ... “
“I am not obliged to speak French with my fellow-countrymen nor to use the legal currency, but I cannot possibly do otherwise ...”

15. Religion a very important social fact
- divides the world up into “sacred” and “not-sacred” (“profane”) things
individuals’ thinking & actions strongly guided by ideas of what is “sacred”
anyone disrespecting “sacred” things severely punished
Applies particularly in pre-modern societies; but also still applies in modernity

16. SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE
Sociology to be independent of other disciplines
Especially psychology
Psychology’s domain: individual brains and minds
Sociology’s domain: “Society” - the realm of social facts

17. SCIENTIFIC METHOD: POSITIVISM
A doctrine developed in the later 18th century – the Enlightenment
b) Applied to chemistry, physics, biology
c) Science can produce thoroughly objective (“positive”) knowledge

18. d) Real truth; beyond mere opinions
Scientists are dispassionate and objective
They don’t impose their views on the data
e) Science can be completely rigorous – uses reliable methods (experiments)
f) Science discovers scientific laws that apply in all circumstances
e.g. putting together nitro and glycerine
e.g. the boiling point of water is ALWAYS 100 °C

19. Durkheim’s Positivism
Applies positivism to sociology
Sociology can be a real science
if it is positivist
i.e, if it is modelled on the lines of the natural sciences
Sociology = the natural science of society

20. a) Sociology searches for “objective” knowledge about how society really works
b) It uses rigorous scientific methods
c) The sociologist puts her own personal biases aside
- “lets the facts speak for themselves”
this is possible as social facts really exist
there can be true and false viewpoints on them

21. Sociology produces objective knowledge that is beyond mere opinions about society
Sociologist is a scientist who knows more about society than “ordinary” members of it

22. d) Sociology finds the objective laws of social life
e.g. high suicide rates caused by lack of social integration
(At the least: sociology can spot really occurring social patterns and trends)
e) Sociology uses & produces reliable statistics; these indicate social patterns & social laws

23. f) The practical point of sociology:
- produce objective knowledge that can be used to help improve social conditions
- sociology’s findings inform government policy-making
 Sociology can research social problems; find their real causes; suggest how to solve them

24. THE SUICIDE STUDY

25. THE SUICIDE STUDY Aims: To show sociology could produce objective data
To show sociology had as rigorous methods as the natural sciences
To show that human behaviour was as much socially shaped as it was driven by the individual’s personal motivations
To show that psychology on its own could not explain suicide
To provide information about social causes of suicide, for government to try to reduce suicide levels

26. Methods:
Examine suicide rates in a number of different countries; these vary
Rates accessed through government statistics
Explain varying suicide rates with reference to the key social facts that exist in each country

27. Findings – 4 types of suicide
Altruistic suicide
- Killing oneself for the benefit of your social group
Fatalistic suicide
- Killing oneself from a feeling of hopelessness & despair; when your circumstances are very oppressive
Egoistic suicide
- Killing oneself for wholly self-centred reasons; having no concern for anyone or anything apart from yourself
Anomic suicide
- Killing oneself because of a perceived lack of purpose in your life; feeling alienated from other people

28. 4 types of suicide - causes
Two key social facts:
Level of Social regulation
Degree to which individuals’ thoughts and actions are regulated by society (social facts)
There has to be enough regulation / too much
2) Level of Social integration
Degree to which individuals are integrated into society and social groups (e.g. family, local community, religious group, etc.)
There has to be enough integration / too much

29. Altruistic suicide
- Too much social integration
Fatalistic suicide
- Too much social regulation
Egoistic suicide
- Not enough social integration
Anomic suicide
- Not enough social regulation

30. Different countries have different levels of suicide
- Suicide rates in each country are socially shaped:
- Different countries have different levels of social regulation and social integration
Within a country some social groups more likely to commit suicide than others
- Different social groups are subject to different levels of social regulation and integration

31. Catholicism
Discourages
High regulation
Protestantism
Encourages
Low regulation
Marriage
High integration
Being single
Low integration

32. SOME PROBLEMS
1) Assumes official statistics are true and accurate representations of reality
Statistics are social constructions
Who gets counted as a “suicide”?
Depends on the judgements of police and coroners
Sometimes actual suicides are not recorded as such e.g. Catholics

33. 2) (Weber) Ignores the motivations of people committing suicide;
treats individuals as
passive puppets of broader social forces
what about individuals’ capacities to think and choose?
overemphasises SOCIAL STRUCTURE over INDIVIDUAL’S AGENCY

34. ASSESSMENT
1) Durkheim’s view of social facts still very influential today generally
2) Durkheim’s positivism still (largely) accepted by sociologists working with statistics, surveys and large sets of data
3) Durkheim’s critics say he is naïve and simplistic – too much faith in positivism.
Is he outdated or not?