6.3 Social Facts

Summary

The transcript emphasizes Durkheim's foundational sociological concept that social facts cannot be reduced to individual behaviors. He argues that collectives exhibit unique characteristics, like cohesion and regulation, not present in individuals. Durkheim introduces 'collective consciousness' as a key to social cohesion, contrasting with individual psychology. He refutes mass psychology's view that sociology is redundant, asserting that group dynamics create new social phenomena, akin to how life emerges from molecules in biology. Sociology, therefore, is a distinct science, necessary to understand these emergent social facts.

Takeaways

• 🧠 The core of Durkheim's philosophy is that social facts should not be reduced to individual behaviors; doing so would be a scientific error.
• 👥 Social phenomena can only be explained by referring to prior social facts, emphasizing the importance of societal context over individual psychology.
• 🔍 Durkheim argues against reductionism, advocating for the study of social facts at the societal level, not the individual level.
• 💬 His famous phrase, 'The whole is more than the sum of its parts,' counters the idea that groups are merely collections of individuals.
• 🤔 Critics accused Durkheim of mystifying reality by suggesting groups have characteristics beyond their members, but he aimed to highlight emergent properties.
• 🤝 Durkheim introduced the concept of 'collective consciousness' or 'collective conscience,' which became central to understanding social cohesion.
• 🚫 He disagreed with mass psychologists who believed sociology was redundant, as they thought understanding individuals would explain group behavior.
• 🌐 Durkheim believed that when individuals form groups, new social phenomena emerge that are unique to the collective and not found in individuals.
• 📚 In 'The Rules of Sociological Method,' Durkheim outlines that social facts are external and coercive, exerting pressure on individuals.
• 🔬 He compares the study of social facts to biology, where the study of life is separate from the study of molecules, emphasizing sociology's unique subject matter.

Q & A

What is the core concept of Durkheim's sociology?

The core concept of Durkheim's sociology is that social facts should not be reduced to individual behaviors. Social phenomena can only be explained with reference to antecedent social facts and should be understood within the context of social reality.

Why is it considered a scientific error to reduce social effects to individual effects according to Durkheim?

Reducing social effects to individual effects is a scientific error because it overlooks the unique characteristics that emerge from the collective interactions of individuals, which are essential to understanding social phenomena.

What does Durkheim mean by 'the whole is more than the sum of its parts'?

Durkheim uses this phrase to emphasize that the collective properties of a group cannot be understood simply by examining the individuals within it. There are emergent properties that arise from the group's structure and interactions.

How does Durkheim define 'collective consciousness' or 'collective conscience'?

Durkheim defines 'collective consciousness' or 'collective conscience' as the shared beliefs, values, and morals that are common to all members of a society, which contribute to social cohesion and are distinct from individual consciousness.

What was Durkheim's stance on the relationship between sociology and psychology?

Durkheim disagreed with the idea that sociology was a superfluous science in relation to psychology. He argued that sociology studies phenomena that are sui generis, or unique to the social realm, and cannot be fully explained by individual psychology.

What is the significance of Durkheim's comparison of social facts to biological life?

Durkheim's comparison of social facts to biological life is significant because it illustrates that just as life emerges from the organization of molecules in a cell, social phenomena emerge from the organization of individuals in society.

What does Durkheim mean by 'phenomena sui generis' in the context of sociology?

Durkheim uses 'phenomena sui generis' to describe social facts that are unique and irreducible to individual psychological or biological processes. They are phenomena that can only be understood within the social context.

In what year did Durkheim publish 'The Rules of Sociological Method' and what is its significance?

Durkheim published 'The Rules of Sociological Method' in 1895. It is significant as it outlines the philosophical and epistemological foundations of sociology, emphasizing the importance of studying social facts as external and coercive forces.

How does Durkheim view the coercive nature of social facts?

Durkheim views social facts as coercive because they exert pressure on individuals, influencing their thoughts, feelings, and actions. This coercive nature is a key aspect of social facts that differentiates them from individual behaviors.

What does Durkheim suggest is the role of sociology in relation to other sciences?

Durkheim suggests that sociology should be a distinct science dedicated to studying social facts, separate from sciences that focus on individuals, such as psychology, because social facts are phenomena sui generis that require their own methods of study.

How does Durkheim's perspective on social facts challenge reductionism?

Durkheim's perspective challenges reductionism by asserting that social facts cannot be fully understood by examining only the individuals that constitute them. Instead, social facts must be studied as emergent phenomena that have their own unique characteristics and causality.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Durkheim's Critique of Reductionism

The first paragraph emphasizes the core principle of Durkheim's sociological theory, which is the rejection of reductionism in understanding social phenomena. Durkheim argues that social facts, the observable phenomena in human collectives, cannot be reduced to individual behaviors or characteristics. He posits that social facts are sui generis, meaning they have a unique existence and should be explained by referencing other social facts, not individual psychology. Durkheim's famous phrase, 'The whole is more than the sum of its parts,' is introduced to illustrate that collectives possess characteristics that are not present in the individuals that form them. He counters critics who accuse him of mystifying reality by asserting that social groups have emergent properties, much like how life emerges from the organization of molecules in biology. Durkheim's concept of 'collective consciousness' or 'collective conscience' is introduced as a key source of social cohesion, replacing 'organic solidarity' in his later works. He also challenges mass psychology professors who view sociology as unnecessary, arguing that the study of individuals does not suffice to understand the new phenomena that arise from their association in social groups.

05:02

📚 Durkheim's Sociological Method

The second paragraph delves into Durkheim's seminal work, 'The Rules of Sociological Method,' published in 1895. This book outlines the philosophical and epistemological foundations of sociology and the social sciences. Durkheim asserts that social facts are external to individuals and coercive, exerting pressure and influencing how individuals think, feel, and act. He emphasizes that social facts are phenomena sui generis and should not be explained by reducing them to individual levels. The paragraph also touches on the far-reaching implications of this view, particularly in Durkheim's sociology of religion. Durkheim's argument is that the association of human beings creates new social facts that require a distinct scientific study, which is the domain of sociology, not individual sciences like psychology. He uses the analogy of biology, which studies life as a phenomenon emerging from the peculiar association of molecules, to argue for sociology as a science dedicated to studying social facts in their own right.

Keywords

💡Social Facts

Social facts refer to the phenomena that can be observed and measured in human societies. In the context of the video, these are the collective behaviors and structures that sociologists study. The video emphasizes that social facts should not be reduced to individual behaviors, as they represent a level of reality that is distinct from the individuals who make up the society. For example, the script mentions that social facts like 'density,' 'regulation,' and 'cohesion' emerge from the collective and cannot be found in individual members.

💡Reductionism

Reductionism is the approach of explaining complex phenomena by reducing them to simpler, more fundamental ones. The video argues against reductionism in sociology, suggesting that it leads to a misunderstanding of social phenomena. The script warns that reducing social effects to individual effects is a 'scientific error' and that sociologists should resist this 'sweet seduction.'

💡Collective Consciousness

Collective consciousness, also referred to as 'conscience collective' in the video, is a concept that denotes the shared beliefs, values, and morals that characterize a social group. It is a key concept in Durkheim's sociology, suggesting that social groups have a collective consciousness that is more than the sum of individual consciousnesses. The video uses this term to argue that social groups have unique characteristics that are not present in the individuals who comprise them.

💡Organic Solidarity

Organic solidarity is a term used by Durkheim to describe the social bonds that exist in modern societies, based on interdependence and division of labor. The video suggests that collective consciousness later replaced organic solidarity as the primary source of social cohesion in Durkheim's work. This concept is used to illustrate how social cohesion arises from the interrelatedness of social roles and functions in a society.

💡Sociological Method

Sociological method refers to the systematic approach used by sociologists to study social phenomena. The video mentions a book by Durkheim, 'The Rules of Sociological Method,' which discusses the philosophical and epistemological foundations of sociology. This method is crucial for understanding how sociologists distinguish between social facts and individual behaviors and how they study the former as external, coercive phenomena.

💡Externality

Externality in the context of the video refers to the characteristic of social facts being outside of each individual. Social facts are external to the individual and exert pressure or constraint on them. This concept is used to argue that social facts are not a product of individual minds but are客观 realities that shape individual behavior and thought.

💡Coercive

Coercive, as used in the video, describes the way social facts impose themselves on individuals, compelling them to act in certain ways. This term is used to emphasize that social facts are not just descriptive but also prescriptive, influencing and constraining individual behavior. The video suggests that sociologists must recognize this coercive nature of social facts to understand their impact on society.

💡Phenomena Suies

Phenomena suies is a Latin expression used by Durkheim to denote phenomena that are unique to a certain level of reality and cannot be explained by reducing them to a lower level. In the video, this term is used to argue that social facts are sui generis, meaning they are unique to the social level and should be studied as such, not reduced to individual psychology or biology.

💡Critique of Mass Psychology

The video discusses Durkheim's critique of mass psychology, which he viewed as unnecessary because it attempted to explain social phenomena by individual psychology. Durkheim disagreed, arguing that the association of individuals in a group creates entirely new social facts that cannot be understood through the study of individuals alone. This critique highlights the unique perspective of sociology in understanding collective behavior.

💡Biological Analogy

The video uses a biological analogy to explain the concept of phenomena suies. It compares the association of molecules in a living cell to the association of individuals in a social group, arguing that both create new phenomena that are not present in the individual components. This analogy is used to illustrate how the collective has properties that are distinct and emergent, reinforcing the idea that sociology studies phenomena that are unique to the social level.

Highlights

Social facts should not be reduced to individual behaviors; they exist at a collective level.

Reducing social effects to individual effects is a scientific error.

Social phenomena can only be explained with reference to antecedent social facts.

Sociologists must resist the temptation of reductionism and remain focused on social reality.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts, indicating the complexity of social groups.

Ascribed characteristics to groups beyond individuals can lead to metaphysical thinking, according to critics.

Durkheim argues that social groups have unique characteristics not found in individuals.

Social groups exhibit phenomena like density, regulation, and cohesion, which are emergent properties.

Durkheim introduced the concept of 'collective consciousness' or 'collective conscience' as a key to social cohesion.

Durkheim faced criticism from mass psychology professors who saw sociology as unnecessary.

Sociological phenomena are sui generis and cannot be explained by individual psychology alone.

The association of individuals creates new social facts, a concept paralleled with the emergence of life from molecules in biology.

Social facts are external to individuals and exert a coercive pressure on them.

Durkheim's work emphasizes the need for sociology as a distinct science to study social facts.

The Rules of Sociological Method outlines the philosophical and epistemological foundations of sociology.

Social facts are characterized by being external and coercive, shaping individual thoughts and actions.

Durkheim's ideas challenge the reductionist approach and advocate for the study of social facts in their own right.

Transcripts

DM's most important idea the kernel of

everything that he wants us to

understand is that social facts the

phenomena that we observe and try to

explain when we study human collectives

can and should never be reduced to the

level of the individual human beings

that belong to such a collective if you

do that if you reduce a social effect to

an individual effect you make an

inexcusable scientific

error social facts can only be explained

with reference to antecedent social

facts the sociologist should always

remain on the level of social reality

and should resist the sweet seduction of

reductionism this is a difficult

argument that Durham sometimes put into

words that gave ammunition to his

critics he loved to use for example a

sentence that he borrowed from one of

the philosophy professors of his student

days the whole is more than the sum of

its parts that expression made it a bit

too easy for his opponents to ask how a

group of people can be anything else

than just the individual people

composing the group if we ascribe to

that group a little something extra they

said then we mystify reality we fall

victim to what AUST K called

metaphysical

thinking that is what the critic said

but that is not at all what durm

intended to convey to his readers the

point that he wants to make is that when

h human beings are woven together in

larger social

entities those collectives possess

peculiar characteristics that cannot be

found in the individuals that constitute

them the social group may have a certain

density we may discern a degree of

Regulation a certain amount of cohesion

we may even quantify its birth rate or

its suicide rate and all those

characteristics are attributes of the

entire social formation they cannot be

found in the individual members they

rise up they emerge from the structure

as a

whole du even wrote about what he called

a conscience Collective you can

translate that as collective

Consciousness but you can also translate

it as collective conscience in his later

books this concept became more and more

important it replaced in a way organic

solidarity as the most important source

of social

cohesion now Duram had to confront the

professors of mass

psychology who believe that sociology

was a Superfluous science because they

already studied the things that

sociologists said that they were going

to study when the psychologist of

individual human beings really

understands what goes on in the brains

of one single man or woman they said

then it is not so difficult to

understand what happens when 1,000 of

those people form a group and here

Durham disagreed

completely when human beings get

together in larger social entities he

says this process of Association creates

entirely new phenomena that cannot be

found in the elements that compose it

the social facts that emerge from the

association of individual human beings

belong to a class all of their own or to

use the Latin expression that durm often

employed they are phenomena

suies and no there is nothing mystical

or metaphysical about that he tries to

make his point here with a comparison a

comparison taken from the world of

biology we all believe he says that a

living cell consists of nothing but

molecules and if those molecules are

ordered in a certain way then we may see

at the level of the living cell as a

whole a completely new phenomenon

surprisingly springing forth from the

associated parts that wonderful thing

that we call

life of course it is impossible to say

that life life can be found in this one

or in that one of the assembled

molecules it is their very peculiar

Association that creates something new a

phenomenon that is studied in a science

that stands apart from the sciences that

like physics or chemistry study

molecules and of course that is the

science of Life the science of biology

and just in the same way the so

associations of the association of human

beings creates new phenomena social

facts that should be studied not by The

Sciences of individuals such as

psychology but by the science that is

dedicated to the study of social facts

and nothing but social facts the science

of

Sociology you can find this argument in

a small book that dur published in

1895 the rules of sociological method

not quite a methodology book in the

restricted sense of the word but a book

about the philosophical and the

epistemological foundations of Sociology

of the social sciences in

general in that book he says that social

facts are characterized in the first

place by being outside of each and every

individual they are external to the

individual and that they are

characterized in the second place by the

fact that they exert a certain pressure

on every individual they are coercive we

experience them as a power forcing us to

think and feel and act in certain ways

and that is an important point with

far-reaching consequences as we shall

see when we discuss his sociology of

religion but the heart of the matter is

that social facts are phenomena suties

that they should never be explained by

reducing them to the level of individual

human beings they exist in a world all

of their

own