Classical Sociological Theory

Firstly one needs to define the two concepts at hand, namely (a) social facts by Durkheim and secondly, (b) pathological by Durkheim.

The concept of anomie exemplifies Durkheim’s agenda to distinguish sociology as a discipline because it adheres to his conception of the social fact (social phenomena) as a unique scientific entity and sociology’s primary object of study. This philosophy separates social facts from the facts of biology and psychology. The primary qualities of a social fact are externality (the idea that the motivation to do something exists outside of an individual) and constraint (the idea that it limits what individuals can do). Anomie occurs when social facts loose their power and fail to function in the way they usually do under stable conditions. If, by Durkheim’s logic, social facts have such awesome power over individuals that they require a unique area of scientific study, it is entirely reasonable to assume that a lack of social facts would have a dramatic and harmful effect on a population. Durkheim uses empirical evidence, another characteristic of scientific study, to demonstrate the correlation between anomie and high rates of suicide. In this way Durkheim proves that one cannot think fully about suicide without a sociological perspective, furthering his argument for the existence of sociology as a discipline.

The study of sociology brings people to view topics in a unique way than others. The way we see the world, human behavior, as well as its connection to society from an outside point of view is called social imagination or perception. The sociological imagination “searches for the link between micro and macro levels of analysis,” a concept that basically says that a person lives

The foundational concepts of sociological imagination, social construction of reality and socialization help us learn more about ourselves and the world.

As one of the major purposes of sociology is to comprehend ways human actions and ideologies are formed by the social structures and cultural environment,

“ A social fact is every way 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 independent of its individual manifestations. (Durkheim,1895/1982;13) (Ritzer, pg 76)

As Durkheim considered these statistics as social facts, he believed that they could be used

People are complex. Our various characteristics, including but not limited to, behaviors, ideals, perspectives, attitudes, and physical attributes make us who we are as individuals and society as a whole. The macrocosm of society, by default of the people within it, is supremely complex. As we would expect, society is evolutionary and as such, there are numerous theoretical approaches to its study. The three major theoretical approaches are examined here.

Along with Marx and Weber, Durkheim is considered one of the founding members of modern sociology. He is also credited with making sociology a science through his application of scientific and empirical research. Durkheim believed that sociology should be seen as a science separate from other sciences such as psychology, by studying “social facts” objectively as things. (Kiviston, 2011)

Before commencing a discussion on analyzing the article “What makes sociology a different discipline” from the other sciences we should have the know-how about sociology. In the words of modern thinkers of sociology namely Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim “Social fact should be the subject matter for the study of social life and can provide explanations for human thinking and behavior (p19)”. What we infer from the above definition is that man is born as a social animal. Man cannot live alone. He prefers to live in groups and his behavior that is actions and deeds are well governed and regulated by certain rules and laws of conduct that comprises of moral ethics and civic standards. His standard of living is said to be within the

“A social fact is identifiable through the power of external coercion which it exerts or is capable of exerting upon individuals” (Durkheim, [1859] 1982, p.56)

Durkheim’s study of sociology was heavily focused in the study of social institutions such as religion, and marriage. As a positivist, Durkheim believed that suicide was an impartial reasonable fact of society. This idea is due to the visual representations of suicide rates of societies over

Durkheim is a highly influential name to remember when thinking of sociology. Durkheim’s mission was to develop sociology so it could be defined and to develop a method on how sociology should be used. Durkheim’s main concern in his career was primarily associated with how societies might preserve their integrity and rationality within modernised society, when things such as shared religious views and ethnic backgrounds are seen as things of the past. In relation to Durkheim’s social realism his concern was with the growing individualism in society. Durkheim argues that we are in an era which is imperfectly moving towards a morality based on individualism as “Durkheim regarded individualism as a collective representation, a force that

After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits among people; it is also a science about factors in a person’s life and how these factors culminate responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it studies; for, even the slightest change of a person’s daily experience can have an insurmountable impact on attitude, personal growth, family

The sociological inquiry is the methodical analysis of the inspirations and behaviour of individuals within a group. It is the study of the social world as a whole and focusing on how elements such as the family, religion, school, community and government effect it. Sociological inquires most standard goal is to simply obtain a more clear understanding of the observable social world that we live in. In this essay I will be looking into the sociological theories of Marx, Weber and Durkheim, and recognising if their approaches are still relevant today.