Durkheim

The Rules of Sociological Method discusses sociology as a combination of both a science and psychology. In the first chapter, Durkheim defines social facts as a “manner of thinking, acting, and feeling that are external to the individual” yet hold a power over him. By studying this, Durkheim claimed you would be following “The Rules of Sociological Method.” Some cases of social facts are more obvious, like legal rules or religious beliefs, than others, like in cases of suicide. Durkheim recognizes that some “collective states of mind” are influenced by a combination of the individuals’ psychological state, biological make-up, and the environment. It is also mentioned that people follow and adhere to said social facts because they are the social norms, so to speak, and spread mainly through the education system. The last argument made in this chapter is that these social facts are more than a way of functioning (how to think and feel) but also a way of being (how you relate yourself to society). This leads to the disagreement with Marx that there are not two classes in society; the features of society are just based on the social functions that have been consolidated over a long period of time. In The Division of Labor, Durkheim looks for the answer as to why the division of labor is the same across all societies and whether or not we should embrace it. 3 possible explanations Durkheim explores are 1. The law is an incomplete indicator (explored most thoroughly in this work) 2.that we should study it directly, and 3.that this is actually a psychological problem and depends more or less on if people like their country or not. The next couple of chapters go into crime and punishment and the roles they play in society. The conclusion of The Division of Labor in the Society links this crime and punishment discussion back to social cohesion. Punishment affects those with a conscious and this is where the social unity comes into play.
It’s crazy to me that Durkheim’s “rules” are still taken into consideration over 100 years later. On the first day of any sociology course, your professor or teacher will compare sociology to both science and psychology and talk about how it’s a combination of the two. Rules of society may change over time but the ways of studying it do not—Durkheim’s Rules have been gone over and used in the majority of the sociology courses I have taken as a sociology minor. In the world of science and research, hypotheses and theories are being proved wrong and changing every day, one the other hand, situations change and the world is evolving, people tend to operate under the same sociological patters.I was reading other articles about Durkheim’s work and came across the interesting idea about where punishment originates. Does it come from the individual or from society? I tried to come up with an answer to this and really struggled—it’s very situational. I think in some cases, criminals aren’t punished harshly enough and in other cases it’s too severe—again I’m making this call based on a situational basis. One can argue that a single judge ultimately decides sentencing, but on the other hand, doesn’t society set the norms by which this judge operates within?