Social Fact by Émile Durkheim

A social fact is every was of acting,fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint; or again, every way of acting which is general throughout a given society, while at the same time existing in its own right independet of its invididual manifestations.

—Émile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method

Durkheim's work revolved around the study of social facts, a term he coined to describe phenomena that have an existance in and of themselves, are not bound to the actions of individuals, but have a coercive influence upon them. Durkheim argued that social facts have, sui generis, an indepdent existence greater and more objective than the actions of the individuals that compose society. Only coercive power on the various poeple composing society, as it can sometimes be observed in the case of formal laws ang religulations, but also in situations implying the presence of informal rules, such as religious, rituals or famliy norms.

Durkheim's discovery of social facts was seen as significant because it  promised to make it possible to study the behaviour of entire societies, rather that just of particular individuals. modern sociologist refer to Durkheim's studies for two quite different purposes.

 

Durkheim made two main distintions between social facts- material and nonmaterial social, facts.

Material facts, he explained, have to do with the physical social structures which exerts influence on the indiviual, it is something that can be touched emerging because of society's shared belief that it serves a purpose. 

Nonmaterial socual facts are the values, norms and the other conceptually held beliefs.