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Social Facts Case Study

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The two cases presented to us, bring to light the concept of social facts-ways of acting, thinking or feeling that are external to individuals and have their own reality outside the lives and perceptions of individual people. These social facts are intangible and exercise a coercive power over individuals, which is often not recognized by individuals as they generally comply with social facts, in the belief that they are acting out of their own will. According to Emile Durkheim, suicide was such a social fact which could only be explained by other social facts, thereby making it sociological in nature. The first case talks about a 22-year-old- first year analyst (Sarvshreshth Gupta) at the Goldman Sachs office, who, overwhelmed by the all-nighters …show more content…

It is, therefore, a feature of common occurrence in societies wherein an individual is ‘over-integrated’, and he values society more that himself and thereby commits suicide for the ‘greater good’. In order to draw a parallel, I would like to refer to the example of the captain of the ship, who chooses to sink along with the ship as he seeks to obey what the group ordains. He is therefore governed by society while committing his act of suicide which seems falsely individualistic. The incident in the case could also be interpreted as fatalistic suicide, which Durkheim describes as the rarest of all type. The woman in the above case, who committed suicide was over-regulated by society, and in her feeling of powerlessness, decided to undertake the practice of Santhara, which was not an individual decision, but a decision brought about due to oppression from fellow beings. For instance, a woman who commits the act of Sati and is put upon the fire by society, she does so because she is oppressed by the society. However, if she does it voluntarily, with absence of oppression, it can be coined as altruistic

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Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening are novels that represent the traps that society has set forth for them. In both novels, suicide is seen as the only way to escape from their constricted circumstances in which these people are expected to live in. The Frome’s and The Pontellier’s have very similar circumstances, such as blaming each other for their problems, and having marriage’s which they are not happy in. “Her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate.”

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In the classical world of Greece and Rome, suicide was glorified as a noble death. As early as the second century, Christian teaching condemned suicide, stating it violates the commandment, “Thou shall not kill”, suicide cannot be repented of and lastly, it’s cowardly” (“Suicide.” Encyclopedia of Religion and the Law in America).

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INTRODUCTION Society is a collection of people that influences individual’s life and behavior. It is generally the groups of people that are complying with the same rules and laws that allows them to live altogether. All over the world, talks about society and its issues that are prominent and inevitable. This paper intends to presents different points about social issues.

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In his book, Suicide, Emile Durkheim explores the social reasons that would someone to commit suicide. The basis of his argument laid in his ideas of social integration and social regulation. Social regulation is the many facets in which a person can be involved with society, such as political groups, religious groups, and domestic groups. Social regulation in comparison are the social and moral rules that a society decides what is right and what is wrong. Durkheim believes that people need to find a balance within social integration and social regulation to live a healthy lifestyle.

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The word altruism may come to mind for some. When performing acts of kindness we

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People who committed suicide were in a state of immense despair; they could not see hope and find the courage to go on. They wanted to end their pain. At the same time, they might not realize that they were also being selfish.

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Emile Durkheim thought that society was multifaceted system of consistent and co-dependent parts that work together to maintain stability. One important thing that Durkheim believed held society together was social facts. He thought that social facts consisted of feeling, acting, and thinking externally from the person and coercive power over that person. These things could include social institutions, rules, values, and norms. They have control over an individual’s life.

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It is greatly seen in modern society. Altruistic suicide happens when there is excessive regulation of individuals by social forces. An example would be someone who commits suicide for the sake of a religious or political cause (Anderson & Taylor,

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According to Emile Durkheim, there are four different types of suicide. These include: egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic suicide. Durkheim’s main focus on studying suicide is understanding what makes a person commit suicide and the influences and factors that lead that person to carry out the act (Open College). Egoistic suicide is when an individual has low social interactions with others, they have feelings

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Weber’s procedure involves certain models of ideal behavior of individuals that he calls “ideal types” which he believes are not the reflections of how the society actually behaves but are to be considered abstract, hypothetical examples of situations from which actual events deviate because of accidental and irrational factors. These ideal types are used to compare and assess the deviation of actual behaviors and events from the ideal type. Durkheim on the other hand believed that the method applied in the study of sociology should be universally applicable. Unlike Weber who put more emphasis on interpretation of actions and on creating some fixed ideal types, Durkheim believed that we should not begin to approach sociology with pre-formulated broad notions that exist only in our minds without observing the real world around us. He believed that moral facts were phenomenon that were possible to observe, describe and classify and that since “morality develops over the course of history and is dominated by historical causes”, it changes with the change in social conditions (Durkheim xxvi).

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