Durkheim Identified Two Different Types of Social Fact

Sosiologi Info - There are three paradigms in Sociology, namely the paradigm of social facts, social definitions, and social behavior. The following is a brief description of the social fact paradigm.

At a glance

The social fact paradigm is drawn from both of Durkheim's works. He laid the foundation for the social fact paradigm through his works The Rules of Sociological Method and Suicide.

Durkheim saw the nascent sociology in an attempt to gain a position as an independent branch of social science. 

According to Durkheim, sociology at that time was in danger, where the power of influence from two branches of science that had stood firmly, namely philosophy and psychology.

Two figures at that time, according to Durkheim, were more dominant in their views on a philosophical rather than a sociological one. 

The two figures were Comte and Spencer. From the results of research conducted by Durkheim, which he tested the results of behind-the-table theories.

According to Durkheim, empirical research is what distinguishes sociology as a branch of science from philosophy. 

On the other hand, if the work that had been initiated by Comte and Spencer were continued, sociology would not be able to stand alone, and in his opinion would be nothing more than a branch of philosophy.

Comte who put the world of ideas as the subject matter of the study of sociology. On the other hand, according to Durkheim, ideas cannot be used as objects of research. 

An idea only functions as a conception in the mind, and cannot be viewed as something.

In particular, Durkheim criticized Spencer by stating that Spencer did not make real social life the object of his sociological study. Rather, it is his own idea of social life that is used as the object of his study.

Spencer and Comte are not much different, they both emphasize the idea of social order rather than trying to do empirical research.

The two figures above, according to Durkheim, are very guilty because they have turned sociology into a branch of philosophy, instead of directing it into an empirical and independent science.

Therefore, to be able to separate sociology from the influence of philosophy, and to help sociology find its own field of inquiry, Durkheim developed a concept, namely Social Facts.

Social Facts

Durkheim became a major figure in social facts, because thanks to the results of his analysis and thanks to Durkheim's hard work, sociology finally had its own object of investigation. 

This is the main problem in sociological research. Social facts are expressed as things, which are different from ideas.

The significance of Durkheim's statement lies in his attempt to explain that social facts cannot be learned through introspection. 

Social facts must be investigated in the real world as people look for other things.

According to Durkheim, there are two kinds of social facts:

First, social facts in material form

Where this social fact is something that can be listened to, captured, and observed. Social facts are part of the real world. For example, architecture, and on legal norms.

Second, social facts in non-material form

Where this social fact is something that is considered real. This type of social fact is an inter subjective phenomenon, which can only emerge from within human consciousness. For example, egoism, altruism, and opinion.

According to Durkheim, not all social facts are real goods. Some in the form of non-material is something that is declared or considered as something real. 

However, some adherents of the social fact paradigm have ignored this important thought of Durkheim.

However, not all ignore what was stated by Durkheim, Charles K Warriner is one of the people who believe and believe that all social facts are real things.

Charles K Warriner's famous work, namely Groups Are Real: A Reaffirmation. In his work, Warriner only focuses on social facts on group life. 

He chose to focus his investigations on group life because groups are the most important social fact.

According to Warriner, the group is a real social fact though not as real as a chair or table. There are four criteria that Warriner uses to express group life as something real.

First, the nominalist position

Groups are not things that really exist in real. But it is merely a terminology or an understanding used to refer to a collection of individuals.

Well, herein lies the group studied by sociology, namely the behavior of individuals in a group, either in individuals or in the bonds of the group.

Second, interactionism

The adherents of interactionism reject the distinction between the concept of individual and group, they declare the two as an inseparable phenomenon. There is no individual without a group, and conversely there is no group without an individual.

Third, Neo Nominalism

Accept the proposition that the group refers to something that actually exists. But it also recognizes that groups are less real than individuals.

Fourth, Realism

This doctrine holds to the propositions : 

First, Groups are as real as individuals or individuals, 

Second, But both are abstract, the point is only for a unit of analysis, 

Third, Groups are understood and applied specifically in terms to explain social processes, not to refer to individual psychology.

From the results that have been championed by the above figures, sociologists recognize that groups can not only be defined in political terms or in economics. 

Durkheim and Warriner tried to separate sociology from psychology, a field of study which they wanted to separate from sociology.

The following are four propositions that support the group's position as something real, namely: 

First, we can see people or individuals but cannot see groups except by observing individuals

Second, groups are composed of individuals

Third, social phenomena only have reality in individuals

Fourth, the purpose of studying groups is to help explain and to predict individual behavior.

The social facts paradigm is a perspective in which studies conducted in social science are based on facts or realities that occur in the community. 

The main issues that become the center of attention of sociological investigations according to this paradigm are social facts. 

Broadly speaking, social facts consist of two types, namely social structures and social institutions. 

It is the nature and relationship between social facts that is the target of sociological research according to the Social Facts Paradigm.

That's a glimpse of the paradigm of social facts that is the basis of thinkers, sociological researchers in investigating the object of their study. 

Next, we will describe the figures of the social fact paradigm, along with examples in social life.

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