In positivist sociology, social facts are the social structures and cultural norms and values that are external to, and coercive of, actors (Ritzer 2000:73). Social facts would be represented by social norms or social institutions within the collective conscience or collective representations, which is internalized by individuals as morals which inevitably constrain their behaviour (Marshall 1994: 486). Examples would be law or the suicide rate in a given community. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... In sociology, a norm, or social norm, is a pattern of behavior expected within a particular society in a given situation. ... A social institution is any institution in a socity that works to socialize the groups or people in it. ... Law (from the Old Norse lagu) in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of/for those who do... This article needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ...

The term was coined by 19th century French sociologist Émile Durkheim and was crucial to Durkheim's analysis of society (and to that of his followers). Where Auguste Comte dreamed of making sociology an all-encompassing discipline that contained all others—'the queen of sciences', in his terms— Durkheim was less ambitious. Durkheim aimed to set sociology on a firm, positivist footing, as a science among other sciences. He reasoned that any particular science must have unique subject matter which is not shared with any other science, but which must be susceptible to investigation by empirical means. Variations within the phenomena under investigation, according to Durkheim, must be explained by causes which also lie within the realm of that particular science. In consequence, Durkheim asserted that sociology must become the 'science of social facts'. "Sociological method as we practice it rests wholly on the basic principle that social facts must be studied as things, that is, as realities external to the individual.... ...if no reality exists outside of the individual consciousness, it [sociology] wholly lacks any material of its own." (Suicide, p. 37-8, quoted in Hoult, p. 298) Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Emile Durkheim David Émile Durkheim (April 15, 1858 - November 15, 1917) is known as one of the originators of modern sociology. ... Auguste Comte Auguste Comte (full name Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte) (January 17 (recorded January 19), 1798 - September 5, 1857) was a French positivist thinker and came up with the term of sociology to name the new science made by Saint-Simon. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Science For the scientific journal named Science, see Science (journal). ... Empirical is an adjective often used in conjunction with science, both the natural and social sciences, which means an observation or experiment based upon experience that is capable of being verified or disproved. ...

In Rules of Sociological Method, Durkheim wrote: "A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an influence, or an external constraint."

In Durkheim's view, sociology was simply 'the science of social facts'. The task of the sociologist, then, was to search for correlations between social facts and thus reveal laws. Having discovered the laws of social structure, the sociologist is then able to determine if any given society is 'healthy' or 'pathological' and prescribe appropriate remedies.

Durkheim's work on the 'social fact' of suicide rates is famous. By carefully examining police suicide statistics in different districts, Durkheim was able to 'demonstrate' that Catholic communities have a lower suicide rate than Protestants, and ascribe this to a social (as opposed to individual) cause. This was groundbreaking work and remains much-cited even today. Initially, Durkheim's 'discovery of social facts' was seen as significant because it promised to make it possible to study the behaviour of entire societies, rather than just of particular individuals. Modern sociologists refer to Durkheim's studies for two quite different purposes, however: It has been suggested that Suicide and culture be merged into this article or section. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ...

• As graphic demonstrations of how careful the social researcher must be to ensure that data gathered for analysis is accurate, (Durkheim's reported suicide rates were, it is now clear, largely an artifact of the way in which particular deaths were classified as 'suicide' or 'non-suicide' by different communities. What he had actually discovered was not different suicide rates at all—it was different ways of thinking about suicide.)

• As an entry point into the study of social meaning, and the way in which apparently identical individual acts often cannot be classified empirically. Social acts (even such an apparently private and individual act as suicide), in this modern view, are always seen (and classified) by social actors. Discovering the 'social facts', it follows, is generally neither possible nor desirable, but discovering the way in which individuals perceive and classify particular acts offers a great deal of insight.

A total social fact [fait social total] is "an activity that has implications throughout society, in the economic, legal, political, and religious spheres." (Sedgewick 2002: 95) "Diverse strands of social and psychological life are woven together through what he [Mauss] comes to call 'total social facts'. A total social fact is such that it informs and organises seemingly quite distinct practices and institutions." (Edgar 2002:157) The term was popularized by Marcel Mauss in his The Gift and coined by his student Maurice Leenhardt after Durkheim. Marcel Mauss (May 10, 1872- February 10, 1950) was a French sociologist best known for his role in elaborating on and securing the legacy of his uncle, Émile Durkheim and the Annee Sociologique. ...

Sources

• Marshall, Gordon, ed. (1994). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 019285237X.
• Hoult, Thomas Ford, ed. (1969). Dictionary of Modern Sociology. Totowa, New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams & Co.
• Sedgewick, Peter (2002). Cultural Theory: The Key Concepts, Routledge Key Guides Series. Routledge. ISBN 0415284260.
• Edgar, Andrew (2002). Cultural Theory: The Key Thinkers, Routledge Key Guides Series. Routledge. ISBN 0415232813 .

See also

• Sociological perspective
• Role
• Sociobiology

Sociological perspective is a point of view that focuses not on individuals but their group, or society. ... A function is part of an answer to a question about why some object or process occurred in a system that evolved or was designed with some goal. ... Sociobiology is a synthesis of scientific disciplines that attempts to explain behaviour in all species by considering the evolutionary advantages of social behaviours. ...

External link

• What is a Social Fact? From Émile Durkheim, The Rules of the Sociological Method, (Ed. by Steven Lukes; trans. by W.D. Halls). New York: Free Press, 1982, pp. 50-59.