Durkheim and Sociology I:Social Facts

Main points1. 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

OUTLINE

1. Durkheim’s life2. Durkheim’s aims3. The new science of

sociology4. Social facts5. Scientific method –

positivism6. The suicide study7. Some problems8. Assessment

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

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)

Durkheim’s Aims1) To help reconstruct French societyWar with Germany, 1870Anti-SemitismIndustrial unrest

2) To set up sociology as a proper scienceScientifically rigorousObjective knowledge

3) To set up sociology as a distinct disciplineDifferent from psychology

Durkheim’s Aims4) Go beyond his predecessors“Sociology” already coined by Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

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

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

SOCIAL FACTSSociety 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

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 mindd) Socialisation & education = shared thoughts and feelings inculcated

into the individual childe) “Naturalisation” – taking as “natural”

what has been socialised into you

Each individual has 2 sides

1) 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).

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

Appropriate (socially sanctioned) behaviour is rewarded

Inappropriate (socially condemned) behaviour is punished

Breaking of everyday social norms:

- low-level punishments

“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 ...”

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

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

SCIENTIFIC METHOD: POSITIVISM

Positivism:

a) A doctrine developed in the later 18th century – the Enlightenment

b) Applied to chemistry, physics, biology

c) Science can produce thoroughly objective (“positive”) knowledge

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 glycerinee.g. the boiling point of water is ALWAYS

100 °C

Durkheim’s PositivismApplies 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

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

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

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

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

THE SUICIDE STUDY

THE SUICIDE STUDYAims:1) To show sociology could produce objective

data2) To show sociology had as rigorous methods

as the natural sciences3) To show that human behaviour was as much

socially shaped as it was driven by the individual’s personal motivations

4) To show that psychology on its own could not explain suicide

5) To provide information about social causes of suicide, for government to try to reduce suicide levels

Methods:

1. Examine suicide rates in a number of different countries; these vary

2. Rates accessed through government statistics

3. Explain varying suicide rates with reference to the key social facts that exist in each country

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

4 types of suicide - causesTwo key social facts:

1) 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

Altruistic suicide

- Too much social integration

Fatalistic suicide

- Too much social regulation

Egoistic suicide

- Not enough social integration

Anomic suicide

- Not enough social regulation

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

Catholicism

Discourages

High regulation

Protestantism

Encourages

Low regulation

Marriage

Discourages

High integration

Being single

Encourages

Low integration

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

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

ASSESSMENT1) 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?