Download Examining Social Life - Thinking Sociology - Lecture Notes and more Study notes Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Thinking Sociologically OUTLINE Week 3 DURKHEIM AND SOCIOLOGY I: Examining ‘Social’ Life In these lectures, we examine one of the most fundamental aspects of sociological thinking, namely the idea that there is such a thing as ‘society’ and that ‘social’ phenomena exist ‘above and beyond’ individual persons. We look at one of the most important formulations of this idea, put forward by Emile Durkheim. We explore what he argued in this regard, and how he connected these ideas to a particular epistemological and methodological models, namely positivism. We will see how Durkheim argued that society is external to us, is more than the sum of the individuals that constitute it, has the ability to affect our behaviour, creates common ways of thinking and feeling, and can be known using scientific methods of enquiry. NB we do not intend to cover everything Durkheim ever did, just convey an overall picture. Plus I am not going to deal with the criticisms. You can read and think about these yourselves. Lectures introduce a subject, not teach all there is to know on it. 1. Durkheim: some history and background 2. Sociology as a discipline What is sociology’s subject matter? 3. Society as a whole unit Society is essentially a moral phenomenon. It is more than the sum of the individuals that constitute it. The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) 4. Social Facts The establishment of a social fact. Sociologists should be concerned with general phenomena that are external to us, that constrain our behaviour, and we should treat these as things. Collective representations 5. Suicide Suicide (1897) as a social fact not an individual phenomenon. Can be understood through statistics and patterns. 6. Forms of integration and types of suicide docsity.com
