What Is Social Fact - Emile Durkheim

Emile Durkheim introduced the concept of social facts explaining that “A social fact is any way of acting, whether fixed or not, capable of exerting over the individual an external constraint; or: which is general over the whole of a given society whilst having an existence of its own, independent of its individual manifestations.” (Durkheim, 1895/1982:59). In other words the ideals passed down to us that we pass down to our children, established patterns of human relations, which create a set of expectations for each individual, these differ in every society. Durkheim describes his personal experiences of social facts while performing his responsibilities, which he is obligated to do as a “brother, a husband” (Durkheim, 1982:50) although he explains that he performs these externally to himself: “for it is not I who have prescribed these duties, I have received them through education.” “Undoubtedly when I conform to them of my own free will, this coercion is not felt or felt hardly at all since its unnecessary.” (Durkheim, 1982:52) This creates an idea of an external coercive power, which controls behavior and generates the sense that the individuals right to free will has been affected and taken away, any attempt to challenge the social fact of ones society would create negative implications for the individual, Durkheim explains: “if I attempt to violate the rules of the law they react against me so as to forestall my action…or they cause me to pay the penalty for it if is irreparable” (Durkheim, 1982:51).
Despite this, Durkheim also states that this “cannot be confused with organic phenomena, nor with physical phenomena.” In other words social facts are not a biological or psychological issue.

It is understood that there is no psychological or biological factors involved, therefore it is important to note that: “it is indisputable today that most of our ideas and tendencies are not developed by ourselves, but come from outside, they can only penetrate

Bibliography: Durkheim, E. (1982) extract from ‘What is a Social Fact?’, in Rules of Sociological Method, The Free Press: USA, pp. 50-55. http://cts.hss.uts.edu.au/students06/group%20website%20turning%20the%20lights%20on/cronulla.html