To what extent are the lives of individuals shaped by external constraints - Essay Example

? TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS SHAPED BY “EXTERNAL CONSTRAINTS” ? by Durkheim’s concept of sociology In the 19th century Sociology emerged as a new science by virtue of the French philosopher Auguste Comte (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy n.d). The fundamental term of this science is society; the entire science revolves around this term. What is a society? Since the birth of sociology as science, many sociologists gave their own interpretations of society. Emile Durkheim’s definition of society is based on the concept that it has developed from a traditional to contemporary through the development and expansion of division of labor. His concept is categorized as an evolutionary approach of the material world. He viewed sociology as a science of civilization. He also compared society to the living organism where different parts existed independently but functioned together to ensure an orderly operation of the entire body (University of Regina 2013). This approach contributes two parameters to the society: structure, and function. Durkheim’s differentiation of society into the social structure and function categorizes him as structural functionalist (University of Regina, 2013). Durkheim did not forget about another important term of sociology, which is called individuals. Although, he considered individuals were parts of the society but emphasized that society was not the sum of individuals and their behaviors, actions, and thoughts. Thus, Durkheim introduced a groundbreaking explanation of sociology, which displayed the distinction of sociology from biology and psychology. He emphasized that sociology studied society, and not individuals. The result of this distinction displays Durkheim’s concept that sociology is not interested in individuals’ personal acts, rather in social acts. According to Durkheim, the fundamental task of sociology is to study social acts. He named these acts as social facts. Durkheim further explains that social facts influence, constrain, and even coerce individuals through the objects such as norms, beliefs, tendencies, common sentiments, financial circumstances, and even social currents. Durkheim’s understanding of sociology, especially society, is all about the study of social facts, and how they influence an individual through constraints. Durkheim clarifies that social facts are features of a group and cannot be analyzed from the study of individuals (University of Regina 2013) of the group. Some examples may be legal system, religion, moral values; they are social facts of a group. Beliefs, practices, and consciousness are also social facts, and also belong to a group, which become coercive on individuals who live in that group. As a result, an individual is strongly influenced by the social facts of the group, and performs social duties and obligations. According to Durkheim, sociology studies the society as sui generis, individuals in their social relationship with other individuals, and their connections of social relationships to the society. Social facts In the study of society, Durkheim explored the answer how society was held together. He attributed a category to the society and named it as a “thing” that existed on its own, apart from individuals. Individuals living in the society perform acts, which are individual acts as well as social acts. He prioritizes social acts over individual acts and declares that sociology needs to study the social acts to understand how society is held together. He claimed social acts depend on social facts. What are the social facts? He recommends considering social facts as “things”, which is acting in every way and exerting an external constraint upon the individual behavior (Fairfield University n.d). From physics, if something exerts constraints on another thing, it is considered as a force. Can we then consider these “ things” as forces? If so, a force can always be defined. According to Durkheim, these forces, which he named, as “ things” can also be defined. For example, money, language, class, ethnicity, gender, what we read, where we live, whether we are considered stupid or clever, fat and thin are “things” and they can be defined. To clarify what social facts are, we may explain that the above-mentioned “things” exist apart from an individual, and are capable of exercising an external constraint upon the individual (Cardiff University n.d). This is the most important side of Durkheim’s concept of social facts; it exists apart from individuals. For example, social institutions, cultural traditions, and customs as social facts exist independently of any individual. Social facts not only exist apart from individuals but also general throughout the society. Durkheim’s concept describes that social facts exist outside of individuals and independently of their will, and they have some type of sanction, which is manifested in coercion against any individual who resists them. Moreover, social facts prescribe to individuals a framework of thinking, acting, and feeling (Fairfield University n.d). Society is held together through this framework. The framework exerts constraints on the individual, and it is coercive to the individual. Thus social facts, like in physics, are identifiable through the power of external coercions (Duke University n.d). The above discussion demonstrates that society through its various structures, custom, and norms everyday constrains how people think, feel, and act (Dillon 2010, p. 79-80). As a matter of fact, individuals live in a society under constraints that exist outside of individuals and individuals cannot overturn their existence. These constraints exist irrespective of physical locations of individuals with regard to time. However, collective expressions of social facts are different from its expression in any given individual’s life. For example, we consider a social fact “divorce”. It is at the same time a collective and individual phenomenon. The collective expression of “divorce” is separate from an individual’s experience, though at the same time, individual divorce contributed to collective phenomenon of divorce. The incidence “divorce” how prevalent in a particular community and public opinion about it, are all social facts external to the individual (Dillon 2010, p. 79-81). Social facts can be classified with respect to constraints, material formation, and types. Durkheim defined two types of social facts with regard to constraints: constraints that come from social organizations, which are classified as legal and moral; constraints from social currents that define crowd’s behavior such as mass hysteria, riots, thug activity during a sporting event, the feeling of spirit. Social facts with regard to material formation can be material and immaterial. Material social facts are tangible social structure; nonmaterial social facts are values, norm, morality, and other conceptually held beliefs. Social facts types are social activities, social institutions, and social morphology. Individuals’ lives and External Constraints Emile Durkheim intended to model sociology as a natural science to study how a society was held together. He postulated that society was not a collection of individuals; it exists apart from individuals. A good analogy of this postulate could be that planet earth, which exists not because there are living beings; it exists apart from living beings. He wanted to study society as a matter (“Things”) apart from individuals. The approach is same as one would like to study earth apart from its living beings. However, earth as a matter needs to be studied through specific parameters quantified with values. Durkheim did the same thing. His parameters were social facts. The study of the planet remains incomplete if one does not consider the planet’s laws that shape the lives of living beings. Analogically, the study of society remains incomplete if one does not derive the laws that shape the lives of individual in the society. Durkheim explained the above phenomenon through the social facts and their interaction with individuals. He established that individual lives encountered external constrains from social facts, and these external constraints shaped individuals’ lives. This section of the essay explores to what extent individuals lives are shaped by external constraints. Exploration of social facts in the previous section reveals that society exists as an individual entity is composed of social forces, and it externally exerts these forces on individuals. According to Durkheim these forces are social facts, which can be detected and measured. Durkheim explains that social facts control the way people act, think, and feel; it shapes individual behavior and its pattern. This phenomenon is explained in the following example. Most of the metropolitan cities are racially and ethnically segregated. Why do people create enclaves based on ethnicity inside big metropolitan towns? Because, it gives people comfort and familiarity of being a community when they settle in locations from the same ethnicity and race. This is an example of ethnicity being the social fact that controls individual behavior pattern. In the previous section we have discussed social facts are external to an individual, they constrain the individual, and they are general throughout the social unit. Durkheim's concept of external constrain relates to the pressure that individuals feel in responding to external stimuli. We consider economic status as a social fact. An individual will locate a place for living in an area based on economically affordability. This explains the individual’s selection phenomenon through the external constrain of economic status. Individual lives are shaped from their childhood. A child from his childhood experiences external constraints how to act, think, and learn (Cardiff University n.d). From the earliest year, we oblige him to eat, drink, and sleep at regular hours; later the child is under constraint how to be mindful to others, to respect customs and conventions, and so on (Fairfield University n.d). The child grows to an adult and still experiences external constraints in everyday life. Answer to what extent individuals’ lives are shaped by external constraint is given in the Durkheim’s concept of social facts. In the first definition, Durkheim explains social facts are all acts, which are capable of using external constraints on individuals. In the second definition, he clarifies social facts are all acts, which are common throughout any society and at the same time, exist on its own apart from the will of an individual and are capable of exercising constraints. Durkheim in his definitions implies that social facts are social forces that are not coming from inward of an individual, rather from outward of an individual. All social and governmental institutions, culture, traditions, norms, customs, financial circumstances are outside of an individual, and all of them are exercising constraints on the individual. Durkheim explains that even “social current” is an act that is independent of an individual and also exerts external constraints to the individual. An individual may try to resist or violate the external constraints. In this case, the individual will undergo through various degrees of forces that directly correspond to the repercussions of violating said social fact. Thus, social constraints imposed by different social facts are coercive forces over an individual, but this coercion exclusively demonstrates itself when one deviates from the social fact and becomes stronger in correspondence to the level of deviation (Yahoo 2009). One might think “social currents” is a social fact that emerges from an individual. Durkheim explains that social currents as thoughts, or feeling come over individuals and are gathered together, however, individuals originated none of them. Crowd’s shared experience originated outside, and it exerts constraints upon all of them. If individual discovers that group emotion is not his or her own and attempts to deviate from the group emotion, then he or she then will find resistance from those gathered in attempting to display an emotion contrary to what the group feels (Yahoo 2009). Social current in this regard will display coercive force with respect to the individual. Thus, the entire lives of individuals are regulated by numerous social facts, which are external to individuals and independent of individuals, and they exert constraints upon individuals how they must act, behave, and feel in other words, how they must shape their lives. Reference List Cardiff University n.d., Introduction to Sociology, cf.ac.uk, viewed o6 May 2013 http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/undergraduate/introsoc/durkheim.html Dillon, M 2010, Introduction to Sociological Theory, google.com.ua, viewed 06 May 2013, viewed 06 May 2013, http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=HZEDwaIthpkC&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=external+constraints+sociology&source=bl&ots=C529qEBOfZ&sig=P3Bx1oKN8AT4DLDE5HyAksZgomM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=o3-FUY21DoWl4ASy1ID4CA&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=external%20constraints%20sociology&f=false Duke University n.d., Rules of Sociological Method, duke.edu, viewed 06 May 2013, http://www.soc.duke.edu/~jmoody77/TheoryNotes/rules.htm Fairfield University n.d., What is a Social Fact, fairfield.edu., viewed 06 May 2013, http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so11/frameworks/socfact.html Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy n.d., Auguste Comte, stanford.edu, viewed 06 May 2013, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comte/ University of Regina 2013, Sociology of Emile Durkheim, uregina.ca, viewed 06 May 2013, http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/250j1503.htm Yahoo.com 2009, What Does Durkheim mean by Social Fact, yahoo.com, viewed 06 May 2013, http://voices.yahoo.com/what-does-durkheim-mean-social-fact-3754768.html?cat=7 Read More