Sociology 2270A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Auguste Comte, Formal Methods, Social Fact
31 Jan 2019
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Contributions and theories: he sought to construct one of the first scientific approaches to social phenomena (rules of. Functionalism views society as a system of interdependent parts whose functions contribute to the inability and survival of the system. Function together in order to bring stability: thought that society was more than the sum of its parts, and coined the term social facts. 10/01/2018: according to durkheim, social facts are the subject matter of sociology. Social facts are sui generis (meaning of its own kind; unique) and must be studied distinct from biological and psychological phenomena eg. He looks at suicide through social lens not biological: social facts can be defined as external patterns of behavior that are capable of exercising some coercive power upon individuals. They are guides and controls of conduct: we are born into world with external patterns already around us, we have to find how to fit in, durkheim distinguished between material and nonmaterial social facts.
