Social Facts

A. Social Facts Durkheim delineate neighborly facts as things external to, and coercive of, the actor. These atomic chassis 18 created from embodied attracts and do non ascend from the mortal (Hadden, p. 104). bestride they whitethorn non come out to be observable, well-disposed facts argon things, and be to be studied empiric every last(predicate)y, non philosophic anyy (Ritzer, p. 78). They faeces non be deduced from pure rationality or thought, only require a exact of history and clubhouse in coif to observe their dos and attend the nature of these tender facts. In The Rules of sociological Method, Durkheim begins by noting features much(prenominal)(prenominal) as the pas m (quote 3) Social Facts.When I fulfil my obligations as br variouswise, married man, or citizen, when I execute my contracts, I per s as well asl duties which atomic number 18 defined, externally to myself and my acts, in law and in custom. Even if they accommodate to my own s en fourth dimensionnts and I get hold their verity slipively, such earthly concern is still buttive, for I did not create them I scarce inherited them through my education. (Rules, p. 1). As spokespersons of loving facts, Durkheim cites unearthly beliefs, currency used to acquire transactions, and computes such as the practices followed in my avocation (Rules, p. 2).These compositors cases of conduct or thought argon not unaccompanied external to the star(a) but argon, much(prenominal) all over, endowed with coercive power, by virtue of which they impose themselves upon him, independent of his respective(prenominal) will. (Rules, p. 2). part obligations, values, attitudes, and beliefs whitethorn appear to be mortal, Durkheim argues that these fixionate facts constitute at the aim of decree as a whole, arising from affectionate copulationships and homosexual association. They exist as a result of amicable interactions and historical developments over lo ng periods of time, and come from transfering incarnate mental representations and diverse forms of loving geological formation (Hadden, p. 04). As soulfulnesss who argon born and raised in a lodge, these accessible facts argon wise(p) (through kindlyization) and largely meeted, but the idiosyncratic has zero to do with establishing these. term clubhouse is peaceful of one-on-ones, society is not just the brotherhood of case-by-cases, and these facts exist at the level of society, not at the one-on-one level. As such, these kindly facts do exist, they be the favorable in truthity of society, a trus iirthyity that constitutes the proper bring of sociology (Cuff et al. , p. 33). The turn over of amicable facts is the distinct object or subject matter of sociology (Hadden, p. 105). Durkheim istinguishes tender facts from psychological, biological, or frugal facts by noting that these atomic number 18 well-disposed and rooted in theme sentiments and va lues. At the alike(p) time, he distinguishes the write up of hearty facts from philosophy by noting that the real effects of kindly facts ar manifested in external indicators of sentiments such as apparitional doctrines, laws, moral codes (Hadden, p. 105) and these effects coffin nail be observed and studied by the sociologist. The study of societal facts is thus a walloping part of the study of sociology. In order to do this, the sociologist moldiness rid themselves of preconceptions (Hadden, p. 07) and compress objective study which flush toilet concentre on objective, external indicators such as phantasmal doctrines or laws (Hadden, p. 107). all(prenominal) companionable fact is real, al nearly(a)thing that is constraining on the psyche and external to the actor. The neighborly fact is not just in the mind of the man-to-man that is, these facts atomic number 18 more than psychological facts. That these exist in society as a whole, over time, and nearlytimes crossways societies, provides some consequence of this. At the corresponding time they ar in the minds of individuals so they are as well mental nominates.Ritzer notes that mixer facts laughingstock be carryed to be mental phenomena that are external to and coercive of psychological facts, such as human instincts. The individual mental ground could be considered to intervene amongst loving fact and action (Ritzer, p. 105). Durkheim whitethorn not contrive provided a fit digest of the assumptions underlying, or the symptomatics of, these mental provinces. For Durkheim the study of sociology should be the study of genial facts, attempting to let out the causes of neighborly facts and the functions of these favorable facts.Social facts regulate human genial action and act as constraints over individual behaviour and action. They whitethorn be enforced with law, with clearly defined penalties associated with violation of the sentiments and values of the group. Sanctions may be associated with complaisant facts, for example as in religion, w present resistance may result in disapproval from others or from spi ritual nothingnessers. Individuals may be unaware of social facts and generally accept them. In this case, individuals may accept the values and codes of society and accept them as their own.Two types of social facts are material and non-material social facts. Material social facts are features of society such as social structures and institutions. These could be the system of law, the economy, church and mevery expectations of religion, the state, and educational institutions and structures. They could as well as complicate features such as channels of communication, urban structures, and population distribution. While these are important for visualiseing the structures and form of interaction in any society, it is intangible social facts that constitute the main subject of study of sociology.Nonmaterial social facts are socia l facts which do not swallow a material reality. They consist of features such as norms, values, and systems of morality. around contemporary examples are the norm of the one to three child family, the plus values associated with family structures, and the negative associations connected to on restrict and anger. In Durkheims terminology, some of these nonmaterial social facts are morality, incarnate spirit, and social currents. An example of the latter is Durkheims analysis of self-destruction. Social facts foundation also be divided into convention and pathological social facts (Hadden, pp. 08-9). Normal social facts are the most widely distributed and effectual social facts, assisting in the maintenance of society and social life. Pathological social facts are those that we top executive associate with social problems and ills of several(a) types. Suicide is one example of this, where social facts ought to be contrastive. For Durkheim, the much greater relative freq uency of the normal is deduction of the superiority of the normal. Durkheim afterward modified the notion of a single embodied intelligence, and adopted the view that at that place were bodied representations as part of detail states of substrata of the collective.That is, in that respect may be disaccordent norms and values for antithetic groups within society. These collective representations are also social facts because they are in the consciousness of some collective and are not reducible to individual consciousnesses (Ritzer, p. 87). The social structures, institutions, norms and values that have draw part of the study of sociology force out be derived from Durkheims draw near, and to mean solar day there is little fuss distinguishing sociology from psychology. B. SuicideAfter Durkheim wrote The Rules of sociological Method, he tackled the subject of self-destruction as an example of how a sociologist arsehole study a subject that seems mettlesomely personal, wi th no social aspect to it flat be anti-social. It could be argued that self-destruction is such a personal act that it involves only personal psychology and purely individual thought processes. Durkheims aim was not to apologize or predict an individual list to self-annihilation, but to explain one type of nonmaterial social facts, social currents.Social currents are characteristics of society, but may not have the permanence and stability that some move of collective consciousness or collective representation have. They may be associated with movements such as enthusiasm, indignation, and pity. (Ritzer, p. 87). Hadden notes that Durkheim wished to extract that sociological agentive roles were receptive of explaining much some such anti-social phenomena (Hadden, p. 109). In the case of felo-de-se, these social currents are announceed as self-annihilation evaluate, place that differ among societies, and among antithetical groups in society.These rates show regulari ties over time, with reassigns in the rates lots advancering at similar times in different societies. Thus these rates can be said to be social facts (or at least the statistical representation of social facts) in the sense that they are not just personal, but are societal characteristics. This can be seen in the following quote (quote 12) Suicide rank as Social Facts. At to apiece one bit of its history, therefore, for separately one society has a definite aptitude for suicide. The relative forte of this aptitude is measured by winning the counterpoise in the midst of the total number of wilful deaths and the population of every age and sex.We will call this numerical datum the rate of mortality through suicide, characteristic of the society under consideration. The suicide-rate is therefore a factual order, unified and definite, as is shown by both its permanence and its variability. For this permanence would be inexplicable if it were not the result of a group of distinct characteristics, solidary with one another, and simultaneously effective in spite of different attendant circumstances and this variability proves the cover and individual quality of these aforementioned(prenominal) characteristics, since they vary with the individual character of society itself.In short, these statistical entropy express the suicidal object with which each society is collectively afflicted. Each society is predisposed to contribute a definite quota of voluntary deaths. This predis commit may therefore be the subject of a special study belonging to sociology. (Suicide, pp. 48, 51). Durkheim takes up the analysis of suicide in a very quantitative and statistical air. While he did not have acquirable to him very precise or slay data or sophisticated statistical techniques, his method is symbolical in cover how to test hypotheses, reject incorrect write ups for suicide, diversity through a great grade of ossible news reports, and attempt to contr ol for extraneous factors. Some of the factors that others had used to explain suicide were heredity, climate, race, individual psychopathic states (mental illness), and imitation. As an example of Durkheims method, consider how he analyzes cosmic factors, such as weather or season. Durkheim (Suicide, p. 107) notes that in all countries suicide is greater in the summer months, that no country is an exception to this, and that the proportion of suicides in the cardinal warmer months to the six colder months is very similar in each country.Durkheim notes that this has led some commentators to say the disturb ontogenys the excitability of the nervous system (Suicide, p. 108). just suicide may result from economic crisis as much as from over-excitement, and raise up cannot possibly act the same path on both causes. Further, a impending analysis by Durkheim considers temperature variations and shows that while suicides incr stand-in in number as temperature increases, suicides take a leak a peak before the temperature does. In addition, if temperature is a cause of suicide, warm countries might be expected to have more suicides than cold countries, but the opposite tends to be the case.A link explanation that Durkheim considers is that great changes in temperature are associated with suicide, but again he finds that there is no correlation amidst suicide rates and the fact of temperature change. Rather, the causes moldiness(prenominal) be in some factor that has continuity over time. He pastce notes that the rates are more intimately connected to the length of day, with suicides increasing as the days grow longer, and decreasing in number as the length of day declines. only if it is not the sun itself which is the cause, because at noontime there are fewer suicides than at other times of the day.What Durkheim finds is that the factors associated with higher numbers pool of suicides must(prenominal) be those that relate to the time when social lif e is at its extremum (Suicide, p. 119). The time of day, the day of week, the season of the year, and so on, are not in themselves the motive for the changes in the number of suicides. Rather, the times when social life and interaction among large number are greater, are also those associated with increased suicide. Durkheim concludes this department by saying (quote 13) Four Types of SuicideThe style in which social integrating and legislation work can be break off seen by examining the four fold potpourri of suicides that Durkheim developed. Durkheim ends his discussion of the organic-psychic and vivid environmental factors by concluding that they cannot explain each social groups item style to suicide. (Suicide, p. 145). By eliminating other explanations, Durkheim claims that these tendencies must depend on social causes and must be collective phenomena.The get wind to each type is a social factor, with the periods of integrating and prescript into society bein g either too high or too low. (The following discussion is gaunt from Ritzer, pp. 90 ff. ). 1. Egoistic Suicide. This is the type of suicide that oversteps where the compass point of social integration is low, and there is a sense of meaningless among individuals. In traditional societies, with mechanical solidarity, this is not apparent to be the cause of suicide. There the dependable collective consciousness gives people a broad sense of meaning to their lives.Within red-brick society, the weaker collective consciousness fashion that people may not see the same meaning in their lives, and unrestrained spare-time activity of individual interests may lead to infrangible dissatisfaction. One of the results of this can be suicide. Individuals who are strongly corporate into a family structure, a religious group, or some other type of integrative group are less likely to encounter these problems, and that explains the overturn suicide rates among them. The factors leading to self-centered suicide can be social currents such as depression and disillusionment.For Durkheim, these are social forces or social facts, til now though it is the depressed or wo individual who takes his or her life voluntarily. Actors are never free of the force of the collectivity withal individualized a man may be, there is al directions something collective remain the very depression and melancholy resulting from this same exaggerated individualism. Also, on p. 214 of Suicide, Durkheim says Thence are formed currents of depression and disillusionment emanating from no particular individual but expressing societys state of disillusionment. Durkheim notes that the bond attaching man to life relaxes because that attaching him to society is itself slack. The individual yields to the slightest shock of circumstance because the state of society has made him a fast prey to suicide. (Suicide, pp. 214-215). 2. Altruistic Suicide. This is the type of suicide that occurs when in tegration is too great, the collective consciousness too strong, and the individual is forced into aimting suicide. (Ritzer, p. 91). desegregation may not be the tell cause of suicide here, but the social currents that go along with this very high degree of integration can lead to this.The pursual of Jim Jones of the Peoples temple or the members of the Solar Temple are an example of this, as are ritual suicides in Japan. Ritzer notes that some may feel it is their duty to commit suicide. (p. 91). Examples in crude(a) society cited by Durkheim are suicides of those who are old and sick, suicides of women following the death of their husband, and suicides of followers after the death of a chief. concord to Durkheim this type of suicide may rattling springs from hope, for it depends on the belief in pleasing perspectives beyond this life. 3.Anomic Suicide. Anomie or anomy come from the Greek meaning lawlessness. Nomos means usage, custom, or law and nemein means to distrib ute. anomy thus is social instability resulting from crack-up of standards and values. (Websters Dictionary). This is a type of suicide colligate to too low a degree of regulation, or external constraint on people. As with the unoriented region of labour, this can occur when the normal form of the division of labour is disrupted, and the collectivity is temporarily incapable of physical exertion its authority over individuals. (Ritzer, p. 92).This can occur either during periods associated with economic depression (stock grocery store crash of the 1930s) or over-rapid economic expansion. newfound situations with few norms, the regulative effect of structures is weakened, and the individual may feel rootless. In this situation, an individual may be subject to anomic social currents. People that are freed from constraints arrive slaves to their passions, and as a result, according to Durkheims view, commit a wide range of baneful acts, including killing themselves in greate r numbers than they ordinarily would. (Ritzer, p. , 92).In addition to economic anomie, Durkheim also spends time examining domestic anomie. For example, suicides of family members may occur after the death of a husband or wife. 4. Fatalistic Suicide. When regulation is too strong, Durkheim considers the possibility that persons with futures pitilessly blocked and passions v iolently choked by oppressive subject may see no way out. The individual sees no possible appearance in which their lives can be improved, and when in a state of melancholy, may be subject to social currents of fatalistic suicide. Summary. Durkheims analysis of suicide shows the manner n which the social as opposed to the psychological and biological can be emphasized, and how it results in some usable ways of analyzing the actions of individuals. Suicide rates as expressions of social currents are social facts that affect societies and individuals within those societies. The study of psychology is still use ful in attempting to see to it individual motives and the manner in which the specific circumstances can lead to an individual deciding to voluntarily end their life. But an analysis of these circumstances should be set within the context of the social currents to which that individual is subject.The method of analysis of Durkheim should prove useful even today. In terms of suicide, the social causes are now well recognized, and any analysis of suicide would have to include these. Some combination of egoistic, anomic, and fatalistic types of suicide may help explain and understand this phenomenon. More generally, the method of Suicide is exemplary in providing researchers with a means of instinct the social factors that are associated with particular phenomena. Durkheim examines patterns on the data in an attempt to assure how social factors can play a role in explaining these phenomena.This might be applied to sociobiological arguments today. The trends themselves are not the ca use, but indicative of a cause, a social explanation has to be found. C. Conclusions about Durkheim 1. Contributions a. Social Facts and Social Aspects. These are real things that do affect people. He had a strong structural view of society, and the manner in which each of us is inclined by these social facts and how we must fit into these. Durkheim move to see a role for the social as distinguished from the economic, psychological and biological.This can be seen in his view of the social influences on suicide rates, where he takes a wide variety of factors and considers their influence on the tendency or aptitude for suicide. The effect of each of these factors is not a easy connection between the factor and the tendency to suicide, but must be intercede by social factors. In particular, the social factors that he identified were the degree of integration and the degree of regulation. For modern theories of sociobiology, and the influence of genetics, Durkheims approach could pr ove a useful counter. References Cuff, E. C. , W. W. Sharrock and D. W.Francis, Perspectives in Sociology, third edition, London, Routledge, 1992. HM66 P36 1984 Durkheim, Emile, The Division of Labor in Society, New York, The secrete Press, 1933. Referred to in notes as Division. HD 51 D98 Durkheim, Emile, The Rules of Sociological Method, New York, The Free Press, 1938. Referred to in notes as Rules. HM 24 D962 Durkheim, Emile, Suicide A Study in Sociology, New York, The Free Press, 1951. Referred to in notes as Suicide. HV 6545 D812 Giddens, Anthony, Capitalism and Modern Social system An Analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1971.HM19 G53. Ritzer, George, Sociological Theory, third edition, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1992. HM24 R4938. Social Explanation. If voluntary deaths increase from January to July, it is not because heat disturbs the organism, but because social life is more intense. To be sure, this greater intensity derives from the greater ease of development of social life in the Summer than in the Winter, owing to the suns position , the state of the atmosphere, etc. But the physical environment does not stimulate it this instant above all, it has no effect on the progression of suicide. The latter depends on social conditions. Suicide, pp. 121-122). While this is not a proof or determination of what causes suicide yet, Durkheim notes that the causes must relate to collective life and must be such that these time factors can be incorporated into an explanation. But the explanation must be social in nature, and cannot be simply related to natural factors, these natural factors must work socially, and affect some social aspects which are related to suicide. Note that Durkheim s method here is very empiric, and he searches through motley sorts of data and evidence to find factors associated with suicide.But the explanation is not simply a relation between these data and suicides. Rather he is searching for social causes or conditions that are expressed through these. That is, he uses data to discover patterns, but the patterns themselves are not the cause of the phenomenon. Rather the cause is social, and the observed, empirical patterns constitute a means of determination underlying causes. Another factor that Durkheim considers is religion. While he does find that religion is associated with suicide, in the sense thatProtestant countries and regions have higher suicide rates than do Catholic ones, religious doctrines are not an important factor in explaining these differences. That is, suicide is condemned more or less equally in each religion, and doctrinal statements concerning suicide are all negative. If there is a difference between the two religions with respect to suicide rates, it must be in some aspect of social organization that differs between the two churches. But if this is the factor related to suicide, then it is the social organization that is the cause of the difference, not religion in itself.Giddens notes (p. 83) that Durkheim finds further proof of this in other factors related to social organization, that is, family structure. Where there is more integration in family structure, the suicides are lesser in number. Durkheim argues that the most important aspects of social organization and collective life for explaining differences in suicide rates are the degree of integration into and regulation by society. For Durkheim, integration is the degree to which collective sentiments are shared and regulation refers to the degree of external constraint on people. (Ritzer, p. 90). universality is a more highly integrated religion than Protestantism, and it is in this that the difference in suicide rates is expressed. That is, it is not the religious doctrines themselves but the different social organization of the two religions. As Giddens notes (p. 83), degree of integration of family structure is related in the same way to suic ides. Those in larger families are less likely to commit suicide, whereas those in smaller families, or single, are more likely. Over time, various social factors also make their influence felt.Durkheim notes that there was a decline in the number of suicides in all the European countries in 1848, a year of revolution and political change throughout Europe. Times of political crisis, war, and economic change are also associated with changes in the rate of suicide. Each of these great social movements could be considered to be examples of social currents that have widespread impact within and across societies. Ritzer (p. 89) notes that Durkheim was making two arguments. First, he argued that different collectivities have different collective consciousness or collective representation.These produce different social currents, and these lead to different suicide rates. By studying different groups and societies, some of these currents can be analyzed, and the effect of these on suicide can be determined. Second, changes in the collective consciousness lead to changes in social currents. These are then associated with changes in suicide rates (quote 14) Sociological Explanation. The culmination from all these facts is that the social suicide-rate can be explained only sociologically.At any given moment the moral constitution of society completed the contingent of voluntary deaths. There is, therefore, for each people a collective force of a definite amount of energy, make men to self-destruction. The victims acts which at first seem to express only his personal spirit are unfeignedly the supplement and extension phone of a social condition which they express externally. Each social group really has a collective inclination for the act, kind of its own, and the source of all individual inclination, preferably than the result.It is made up of the currents of egoism, altruism or anomy running through the society under consideration with the tendencies to lang uorous melancholy, diligent renunciation or exasperated fatigue derivative from these currents. These tendencies of the whole social body, by affecting individuals, cause them to commit suicide. The snobbish experiences usually thought to be the immediate causes of suicide have only the influence borrowed from the victims moral predisposition, itself and echo of the moral state of society. (Suicide, pp. 299-300).