Notes
15
Rules of Method (1895)
“Social facts are something more than the actions of individuals.” – Durkheim
NOTE ON SOURCE: These passages are from Durkheim’s Les Règles de la Méthode Sociologique, published in 1895 in Paris by Alcan Press. This book was first translated as The Rules of Sociological Method in 1938 by Solovay and Mueller (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), republished in 1950 by the Free Press (Glencoe, Illinois). The preferred translation today is by Lukes/Halls, published in 1982 by the Free Press (Glencoe, Illinois). The first section here is a synthesis of the Introduction and Chapter 1: What is a Social Fact? The second section covers points raised in the second and third chapters.
Introduction – Why this is important and what to look for
In this book, Durkheim sets out to establish sociology as a research discipline. In the section you have before you, he introduces readers to sociology and its methods. In particular, he describes the proper subject matter of sociology as “social facts,” The method presented here, analyzing social facts, is what distinguishes sociology from other pre-existing disciplines such as history and philosophy and sets it apart from other newly emerging disciplines of the day, such as psychology.