Lakosky - Rules of the Sociological Method

When reading The Rules of the Sociological Method, I found most of what was trying to be explained, hard to interpret, and for that matter, explain. In the readings the concepts that were talked about were those of social facts and how they should be treated as ‘things’ rather then known particulars. Furthermore it was emphasized that the experiences or feelings of one individual may not reflect or coincide with those of another. I will try to further my thoughts on these concepts.

First and foremost, the concept of a ‘thing’ is somewhat hard to grasp or understand because it just left me more confused then I already was. It was explained that, “A thing is any object of knowledge which is not naturally penetrable by the understanding. It is all of which we cannot conceptualize adequately as an idea by the simple process of intellectual analysis. It is all of which the mind cannot understand without going outside itself.” Basically what I got from that definition is that we as a society can not expect to imagine thinking about certain aspects in why society acts or processes the way it does due to the limitations of what we don’t know beyond our own knowing.

Moreover the facts that we think we know should be considered as things and therefore be disregarded because those facts are unknown. So in actuality we are ignorant in what we know because of the lack of proof or scientific knowledge in what we do or think. When reading it said that, “we know very inaccurately the relatively simple motives that govern us.” Society and the way it works can be somewhat explained by saying that it is made up of everyone’s ideas and experiences, and not by a methodically correct system of actions. I would say that I have to agree with the concept that social facts should be considered things because there is too much change and diverse processes that take place for us to make sense of what these things are. To come to closure on this idea, Durkheim states that, “It is as if, on certain points, we are only just beginning to perceive a few glimmers of light…And no matter what one does, it is always the same method that one must return.”

Another concept that I pulled from this chapter was that if an idea is already known and practiced all around you and was there before you were it should be considered as the social fact. From here on out through the chapter I started to get more and more confused about social facts and how they relate to our emotions and feeling and how they differ from one person to another. In addition to that I took interest in the concept that the actions that one individual takes may or may not effect the characteristics or situational aspects of a social species. I find that this concept is completely relevant to the idea of social facts being considered as things because who is to say that the actions of a person did or did not change the turn out or outcome of another situation, it is just too big of an idea to grasp.

I know that this chapter was confusing for me to understand, in its concepts and points of view, and I probably only made it worse. These were some of the ‘things’ that I tried to understand or look deeper into, I think that Durkheim speaks in a very professional manner, to some extents where the reader, me, gets lost. The ideas are very deep and profound they just take a lot of intellectual ability and understanding to indulge in these concepts.