Emile Durkheim: Understanding Social Factors

Flashcards covering Emile Durkheim's concepts of social factors, social facts, social currents, and collective phenomena based on lecture notes.

According to Durkheim, what type of human events can be considered 'social'?

Events that include activities like drinking, sleeping, eating, or reasoning.

How does Durkheim differentiate sociology from biology and psychology?

Sociology has a distinct domain characterized by phenomena distinct from other natural sciences.

What are some examples of 'social factors' and how do they relate to individuals?

Obligations defined by law and custom, religious beliefs and practices, systems of signs (language), and monetary systems; they are external to the individual and received through education.

What is meant by the 'compelling and coercive power' of social factors?

Social factors exist outside individual consciousness and compel behaviors, often against an individual's will, with public conscience restricting infringement on moral rules.

Define 'public conscience' as discussed in the notes.

The collective sense of moral and ethical standards shared by a society or group, shaping individual and group behavior through shared awareness, attitudes, and values.

Why does the author argue that 'social' is a fitting term for certain phenomena?

It refers to phenomena that fall into none of the categories of facts already labeled and constitute the proper field of sociology.

According to Émile Durkheim, what are 'social currents'?

Powerful, collective emotions or trends that sweep across society, acting as non-material social facts that impose influence and coercion on individuals, shaping collective consciousness.

How does external coercive power assert itself, even when individuals are not conscious of it?

It asserts itself acutely in cases of resistance, and even when individuals share in a common emotion, their impression is different from what they would have felt if they had been alone.

What are 'social facts'?

Beliefs, tendencies, and practices of a group taken collectively, often dissociating from each other and acquiring a peculiar form.

How can social factors be isolated for study?

By observing 'currents of opinion' that impel towards phenomena like marriage or suicide, which are represented by rates of births, marriages, and suicides, where individual circumstances cancel each other out.

When can phenomena be considered 'collective'?

If they are common to all or a majority of society members, and are a condition of the group repeated in individuals, often handed down by previous generations and invested with special authority.

What is the definition of 'social phenomena'?

Observable patterns of behavior, events, or situations that arise from human interaction and shape the surrounding society, including individual interactions, group structures, and cultural contexts.

What is considered a 'collective phenomenon'?

A type of social phenomenon where many individuals act in a coherent, often spontaneous or synchronized way, to form a larger, unified event or entity, characterized by strong internal cohesion.

How is a 'social fact' identifiable?

Through the power of external coercion exerted upon individuals, or by ascertaining how widespread it is within a group, where a mode of behavior existing outside individual consciousness becomes general by exerting pressure.

What does 'morphological' refer to in the context of social facts?

It is reserved for social facts related to the social substratum, such as the number and nature of societal elements, their articulation, population distribution, and communication networks.

What is the general definition of a 'social fact'?

Any way of acting that can exert an external constraint over an individual or is general over a society, independent of individual manifestations.