Transcript Document

The Rules of Sociological Method, Durkheim (1895)
Tamara Sole
Clark Backus
HOL 8100 Organizational Culture
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Overview
• Placing Reading 5 in time
• Primary points
• Specific supporting themes within
▫ Preface
▫ Preface to the Second Edition
▫ What is a Social Fact
▫ The Rules
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Primary Points
• Sociology
▫ “the science of institutions“
▫ contrasts the individual's thoughts to those of the "collective" - society, an
institution, or some collection of individuals united by a common bond
• “Social facts”
▫ exist outside of the individual; they cannot be "willed" into existence, instead they
grow organically
▫ are not the sum of individual thoughts but rather evolve into their own, separate
and distinct "beliefs, tendencies, and practices" that are in a (virtually) perpetual
state of change
▫ Can’t be predicted; they can only be discovered by looking backward
• When studying an institution, one must try to separate what creates the
institution's facts and the purpose the facts serve
• This type of study involves both a description of the facts and an
explanation of them, and follows a set of rules
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Supporting Themes: Preface
• Sociology is the focused study of “things” (beliefs, practices) that can’t be changed
“at will”
• Sociologists are rationalists
• “Our main objective is to extend the scope of scientific rationalism to human
behaviour by showing that, in light of the past, this behaviour can be reduced to
relationships of cause and effect.” (Durkheim, p 64)
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Supporting themes: Preface to the Second Edition
• “Social facts”
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treated as “things” to be observed and experimented on
lie outside of the individual
• Sociology is NOT psychology
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Relies on the observation of attitudes toward social facts
“To understand the way in which a society conceives of itself and the world that surrounds it,
we must consider the nature of the society, not the nature of the individuals.” (p. 65)
• Sociology considers group norms and the individuals who conform to them
▫
habits do this in a psychological sense
• Institutions
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“all beliefs and all modes of behavior instituted by the collectivity”
• Sociology studies institutions
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Supporting Themes: What is a Social Fact
• “Social facts” are
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Human actions
“social currents” (groundswells of group views)
Ways of being and doing
• They establish the collective beliefs, tendencies, and practices of a group
• “…most of our ideas and inclinations are not developed by ourselves, but come from
outside, they can only become part of us by being imposed upon us.” (p. 70)
• The substratum of society (social stratification, coalescence, population distribution,
nature of dwellings, types of communications) are different than the substratum of the
individual as studied by psychologists (acting feeling, thinking)
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Supporting Themes: Rules
1.
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Rules for the Observation of Social Facts
Rules for Distinguishing the Normal From the Pathological
Rules Relating to the Classification of Social Types
Rules for The Explanation of Social Facts
Rules Relating to the Establishment of Proofs
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Rules for the Observation of Social Facts
• Treat social observations as “things” - the data from which to start science
• It is impossible to live with “things” and have no ideas, thoughts about them
• Our thoughts then reflect our perception of the “thing”, rather than the reality of the
“thing”
• The (reality of the actual) “thing” cannot be modified by an act of individual will
• Principal rules for sociology
1. Systematically avoid preconceptions
2. Define the subject and ensure it can be defined and observable / measurable
3. Look at the whole group of “things” rather than at each “thing” individually
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Rules for Distinguishing the Normal From the Pathological
• A social fact is normal for a given social type, considered at a given phase in its
development, when it occurs in the average society of that species at the
corresponding phase in its evolution
• The results off the preceding method can be verified by showing that the general
character of the phenomenon is related to the general condition of collective life in
the social type under consideration
• The verification is necessary when this face relates to a social species which has not
yet completed the full course of its evolution
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Rules Relating to the Classification of Social Types
• “Social Morphology”
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The part of sociology whose task it is to constitute and classify social types
• A simple society is one that has no parts smaller than itself
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It cannot give the appearance of having had parts
It could have multiple equally segmented parts (?, p. 83)
This is the basis from which to classify societies
• Classification follows how society compounds itself
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Rules for The Explanation of Social Facts
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To understand a social phenomenon one must study separately the cause which produced it and
the function it fulfills
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Just because a fact exists doesn’t mean it came into existence for its current purpose
Some facts have no purpose or a purpose that has passed
A fact may have multiple purposes, similar to an organ of the body that serves two purposes
•
The cause of a social fact isn’t determined by individuals but rather by the social facts that follow
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The purpose of a social fact leads to a social end and that end affects all aspects of the fact’s
function
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Both the volume (number of social units) and the dynamic density (the degree of concentration of
the mass) influence how a social phenomena evolves
•
One can’t predict the evolution of social facts because the cause doesn’t necessarily produce the
effect
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Rules Relating the the Establishment of Proofs
• Sociological study relies on the use of the comparative method since there are
typically many variables
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“the same cause always corresponds to the same effect” (p. 88)
Example: “If suicide depends on more than one cause, this is because in reality, there are
several different types off suicide.” (p. 88)
• In this manner, sociology becomes more than just descriptive but also considers
facts
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The Rules of Sociological
Method, 1895
Questions for Considerations
• Where does one find the "simplest" unit of society and
how does one study it?
• How does social media affect the development of the
"collective mind"?
• What impact does sociology have on our world?