The Rules of Sociological Method And Selected Texts on Sociology and Its Method EMILE DURKHEIM Edited and with a new introduction by Steven Lukes Translation by W. D. Halls FREE PRESS New York London Toronto Sydney New Delhi
20 What Is a Social Fact? CHAPTER I What Is a Social Fact? Before beginning the search for the method appropriate to the study of social facts it is important to know what are the facts termed "social." The question is all the more necessary because the term is used without much precision. It is commonly used to designate almost all the phenom- ena that occur within society, however little social interest of some gener- ality they present. Yet under this heading there is, so to speak, no human occurrence that cannot be called social. Every individual drinks, sleeps, eats, or employs his reason, and society has every interest in seeing that these functions are regularly exercised. If therefore these facts were social ones, sociology would possess no subject matter peculiarly its own, and its domain would be confused with that of biology and psychology. However, in reality there is in every society a clearly determined group of phenomena separable, because of their distinct characteristics, from those that form the subject matter of other sciences of nature. When I perform my duties as a brother, a husband or a citizen and carry out the commitments I have entered into, I fulfill obligations which are defined in law and custom and which are external to myself and my actions. Even when they conform to my own sentiments and when I feel their reality within me, that reality does not cease to be objective, for it is not I who have prescribed these duties; I have received them through education. Moreover, how often does it happen that we are ignorant of the details of the obligations that we must assume, and that, to know them, we must consult the legal code and its authorized interpreters! Similarly the believer has discovered from birth, ready fashioned, the beliefs and practices of his religious life; if they existed before he did, it follows that they exist outside him. The system of signs that I employ to express my thoughts, the monetary system I use to pay my debts, the credit instru- ments I utilize in my commercial relationships, the practices I follow in my profession, etc., all function independently of the use I make of them. Considering in turn each member of society, the foregoing remarks can be repeated for each single one of them. Thus there are ways of acting, think- ing and feeling which possess the remarkable property of existing outside the consciousness of the individual. 21 Not only are these types of behavior and thinking external to the Individual, but they are endued with a compelling and coercive power by virtue of which, whether he wishes it or not, they impose themselves upon him. Undoubtedly when I conform to them of my own free