1 Definition of Social Facts:

French sociologist Émile Durkheim defined the term, and argued that the
discipline of Sociology should be understood as the empirical study of social
facts. For Durkheim, social facts "...consist of manners of acting, thinking
and feeling external to the individual, which are invested with a coercive
power by virtue of which they exercise control over him.
1.1 Examples of social facts:
1 Laws
2 Morals
3 Beliefs
4 Customs
5 Fashions

2 Material Social facts:

 Have concrete measurable properties.
 The observable patterns of social life.
 The institutional structure of society.

3 Non-Material Social facts:

 Cannot be directly observed.
 Must be inferred from their influence on behavior.
3.1 Examples:
 Morality
 Culture
 Social order

4 The Division of Labor in Society:

Durkheim’s view of social change revolves around an analysis of the causes
and consequences of increases in the division of labor:
The division of labor varies in direct ratio with the volume and density of
societies, and, if it progresses in a continuous manner in the course of social
development, it is because societies become regularly denser and generally
more voluminous.
How does dynamic density cause the division of labor?
Dynamic density increases competition among individuals who, if they are to
survive the “struggle,” must assume specialized roles and then establish
exchange relations with each other. The division of labor is thus the
mechanism by which competition is mitigated.

5 The Collective Conscience (later called Collective

Representations)
The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the
same society forms a determinate system which has its own life, one may
call it the collective or common conscience.
People are born into the collective conscience, and it regulates their
perceptions and behavior. What Durkheim was denoting with the concept of
collective conscience, then, is that social systems evidence systems of ideas,
such as values, beliefs, and norms that constrain the thoughts and actions
of individuals.
Durkheim was concerned with morality and moral facts. This area is now
termed culture.

Durkheim was concerned with the systems of symbols particularly the norms,
values, and beliefs that humans create and use to organize their activities.
In the course of his analysis of the collective conscience, Durkheim
conceptualized its varying states as having four variables:
 Volume
Denotes the degree to which the values, beliefs, and rules of the
collective conscience are shared by the members of a society.
 Intensity
 Indicates the extent to which the collective conscience has power
to guide a person’s thoughts and actions.
 Determinateness
Denotes the degree of clarity in the components of the collective
conscience.
 Content
Pertains to the ratio of religious to purely secular symbolism in
the collective conscience.

6 Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

6.1 Mechanical Solidarity:
Based on a strong collective conscience regulating the thought and actions
of individuals located within structural units that are all alike Legal codes,
which in Durkheim’s view are the best empirical indicator of solidarity, are
repressive, and sanctions are punitive.
The reason for such repressiveness is that deviation from the dictates of the
collective conscience is viewed as a crime against all members of the society
and the gods.
6.2 Organic Solidarity
These societies are typified by large populations, distributed in specialized
roles in many diverse structural units. Organic societies reveal high degrees
of interdependence among individuals and corporate units, with exchange,
legal contracts, and norms regulating these interrelations. The collective
conscience becomes “enfeebled” and “more abstract,” providing highly
general and secular premises for the exchanges, contracts, and norms
regulating the interdependencies among specialized social units.