PROBLEM

To become a science sociology must satisfy two conditions: having a subject of special study and use a scientific method. With these conditions Sociology has its emancipation, being established as a rigorously scientific discipline. The biggest concern for Durkheim is to precisely define the purpose, method and applications of this science. For that he introduces the concept of social fact, explains its features and finally tell us how we should proceed to the observation of those facts.

KEY CONCEPTS

Social Fact

 "Way of acting, thinking and feeling outside the individual and endowed with a coercive power by virtue of which it is subject" (Durkheim 2004:39).

MAIN IDEAS AND PROPOSALS

The object of study of sociology are the social facts defined as "ways of acting, thinking and feeling, external to the individual, and which are endowed with a role of coercion under which are imposed on them (2004:39).The social fact has two characteristics: coercion and external.

Coercion

The social fact imposes itself upon a man with coercive power: first, because a breach of the rules of social life can lead to sanctions by society. This leaves no margin for power of choice by individuals. Coercion is manifested, for example, when an individual adopts a particular language, when it receives a certain kind of education at home or when subjected to a specific code of laws, then why compliance with these rules often determines the success of actions undertake that: well, a businessman who despises the competition rules risks in getting into bankruptcy, for example. If the coercive nature of social fact often remains hidden, it is because the rules of social life have generally been internalized by individuals during the process of socialization.

Exteriority

The social fact is external to the individual because it pre-exists before man is born, and survives after death. Durkheim refers equally to the material infrastructure of society (roads, architecture of cities, etc.) and institutions (such as law, morality and language). So there are social facts and act on individuals, whose own will not depend on a conscious adherence.

Rules concerning the observation of social facts

The method of analysis advocated by Durkheim wants to be objective: it is necessary to consider social facts as things. Durkheim defines “thing” as "everything is given, all that is offered, or earlier if required to observation" (2004:60). It is necessary to adopt regarding the social fact, the mental attitude of the scientist observes when an external object. For example, "what we are given is not the idea that men have value because it is inaccessible: they are the values that really are exchanged in the course of economic relations. Not one or another conception of the moral ideal: the set of rules that determine the actual behavior (...)" (2004:60). Therefore, to treat social facts as things will be confronted with his own nature.

This method of analysis assumes three corollaries. The first tells us that we must systematically remove the preconceived notions and define carefully the phenomena studied, ie, "it is therefore necessary that the sociologist, or when it determines the scope of their research, either during the statements, resolutely refrain from employing these concepts formed out of science and on a need that nothing scientific "(2004:64). Durkheim adds that if the sociologist feels the need to use these empirical categories, it does so with little awareness of their value, not to assign them a role in its doctrine that does not deserve.The second corollary says that the sociologist should never be taken as an object of research but a group of phenomena previously defined by certain external characteristics are common to them, and must include all the same research that meet this definition. Durkheim refers to crime as a general act, as in societies all crimes entail unpleasant consequences, and therefore, are penalized, but is not, of course, the sentence that makes the crime, but it is through her that the crime was reveals that it is outside and we have to come from if we want to understand it "(2004:73).

The third and final corollary explains that "When, therefore, the sociologist undertakes the operation of any order of social facts, should strive to consider them at an angle in which they present themselves isolated from their individual manifestations." To undertake this it is necessary that the object of study is as objective as possible. Durkheim states that "the condition of all objectivity is the existence of a reference point, constant and identical, to which representation can be compared and delete everything it is variable, so the subjective" (2004: 75). This will mean that the "character" more comprehensive and defined in ways that express collective habits (such as laws and legal rules) that will present us with a constant pattern that is always within reach of the observer.

MAIN CONCLUSIONS

It follows that all scientific explanation requires that the researcher maintains a distance and has neutralidae to the facts, because their values and personal feelings may distort the facts. The facts should be viewed as "things" to ensure the success of Sociology and to identify a social fact it is necessary that the scientist knows to separate those who have characteristics in common exterior compared to those whose events are general and repetitive.

OPEN QUESTIONS

Study prepared by:

Pedro Henrique Soares Correia 20072931 (Sociology)

Adriana Chis 20103058