SOCIOL 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Social Fact
4.16.18
- The Rules of the Sociological Method
- Durkheim is credited for helping define an intellectual space for sociology
- What makes sociology different?
- Sociology is a body of knowledge that attempts to express and explain
social reality
- What are the rules for getting along in this particular setting?
- What are the fair limits of conduct that govern a particular social setting?
- Key task: revealing skeletal structure that lies beneath all aspects of
society/ constitute our social structure
- Social science helps distinguish between the normal and pathological
states of the social organism
- Application can cure social ills and lead to social betterment
- What is a social fact?
- Most basic question covered
- Academic text
- Before the beginning the search for the method appropriate to the study of social
facts it is important to know what are the facts termed ‘social’
- Combination of social and fact
- What is it that we mean when we use the term social?
- The question is all the more necessary because the term social is used
without much precision
- It is commonly used to designate almost all the phenomena that occur within
society, however little social interest of some generality they present
- Used as an adjective
- How often and how frequently do you use “social” or “society” is your life?
- Yet under this heading, there is, so to speak, no human occurence that cannot be
called social
- Not a useful concept
- We use this in too broad of a sense
- Every individual drinks, sleeps, eats, and employs his reason, and society
has every interest in seeing that these functions are regularly exercised
- Are these social in the way that we need to understand these things
- If therefore these facts were social ones, sociology would possess no
subject matter peculiarly its own, and its domain would be confused with
that of biology and psychology
- Social life is very hard for us to study objectively because it is closest to
us
- Does that make sociology any less of a science?
- Sociology is queen of the sciences
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Document Summary
Durkheim is credited for helping define an intellectual space for sociology. Sociology is a body of knowledge that attempts to express and explain social reality. Key task: revealing skeletal structure that lies beneath all aspects of society/ constitute our social structure. Social science helps distinguish between the normal and pathological states of the social organism. Application can cure social ills and lead to social betterment. Before the beginning the search for the method appropriate to the study of social facts it is important to know what are the facts termed social". The question is all the more necessary because the term social is used without much precision. It is commonly used to designate almost all the phenomena that occur within society, however little social interest of some generality they present. Yet under this heading, there is, so to speak, no human occurence that cannot be called social. We use this in too broad of a sense.
