The Rules of Sociological Method
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Rules of Sociological Method
| Author | Émile Durkheim |
|---|---|
| Published | 1895 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Durkheim’s manifesto for sociology as a science with a subject of its own: the “social fact” — a way of acting or thinking that exists outside any individual and constrains them — to be treated as a thing and explained by other social facts, not by psychology. The founding attempt to answer yes to whether the study of human beings can be a science, by specifying a method. |
The Rules of Sociological Method
Where I heard about it
- University of Austin — assigned in Philosophy of Social Science on its Fall 2025 reading list (November 2025). Full curriculum: UATX Fall Reading List.
About this edition
The rules themselves are procedural: how to define a phenomenon before explaining it, how to distinguish the normal from the pathological, and how to use comparison in place of the experiment a social scientist cannot run. First published in French in 1895 after serialization in 1894.
Connections
- UATX Fall Reading List — the curriculum this is assigned in.
- Epistemology — the book is a claim about what counts as knowledge of society and how it is obtained.
- Science — Durkheim’s argument is that method, not subject matter, is what makes an inquiry scientific.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.