According to Durkheim, which of the following is NOT a social fact?
- A religious belief
- A religious belief, law, and custom are all social facts
- A custom
- A law
The correct answer and explanation is :
The correct answer is: A religious belief, law, and custom are all social facts
Explanation:
Émile Durkheim, a founding figure in sociology, introduced the concept of social facts in his seminal work The Rules of Sociological Method (1895). According to Durkheim, social facts are ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside the individual but exert control over each person. They are external to and coercive of individuals, meaning they exist in the collective consciousness of society and guide individual behavior through social norms and expectations.
Examples of social facts include:
- Religious beliefs: These are not just personal opinions but shared understandings that influence behavior and social norms within a group.
- Laws: These are formalized norms codified by legal institutions that exert control through enforcement and punishment.
- Customs: These are informal norms that govern behavior in society through tradition and cultural expectations.
Each of these—religious beliefs, laws, and customs—fits Durkheim’s definition of a social fact because they are collectively created, culturally transmitted, and socially enforced.
The incorrect choice in the question, therefore, is the one that claims all three are social facts, phrased as:
“A religious belief, law, and custom are all social facts”
This is a trick option because it is actually a true statement, not something that is “NOT” a social fact. Since the question asks which is NOT a social fact, the correct answer is this false negative statement, as it does not represent something that is NOT a social fact—it asserts (correctly) that all listed items are social facts.
Summary:
Durkheim considered religious beliefs, laws, and customs to all be social facts. Thus, the correct answer, based on how the question is structured, is:
“A religious belief, law, and custom are all social facts”, because this option contradicts the question’s request to identify something that is NOT a social fact.