How successful was Durkheim in establishing the objective reality of social facts?
… Social facts have a reality beyond private lives.3 Further, social facts are of coercive nature. The individual does not experience their coercive power as such. Even if one believes to be acting out of free will, it is the constraining influence of these facts that are imposing themselves upon the individual. Law and custom decide what is an appropriate way of behaving in a society. Durkheim explains that his facts exist sui generis. By that he means that they have an entity on their own, which is invisible to humans.4 Constraint may take various forms such as religious, political or familial. Ray points out that if members of a society intend to function well in a group, they are forced to abide by rules, laws or customs.5 Fulcher and Scott simplify the nature of social facts and describe them as what later sociologists would call a role. Everyone has a …
