Durkheim, Society and the Individual

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-432-7_8How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Durkheim; Social Facts; Sociological Theory

Abstract

This paper centers on Durkheim’s sociological theory. It first traces Durkheim’s intellectual lineage and his contributions via works like “The Division of Labor in Society” and “Suicide: A Study in Sociology”. Then, it delves into the two perspectives of understanding society and the individual, namely individualism and social determinism. With a focus on Durkheim’s social determinism, it expounds on the concept of “social facts”, characterized by externality and constraint. Their compulsoriness restricts individual behavior, while universality transmits norms and values. Despite constraints, individuals can reshape social facts. Overall, Durkheim’s theory reveals the dual roles of social facts, highlighting the dynamic and bidirectional relationship between society and the individual, which remains influential in social science research.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Peng Gao
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/06/22
TI  - Durkheim, Society and the Individual
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 4th International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 63
EP  - 68
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-432-7_8
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-432-7_8
ID  - Gao2025
ER  -