The Rules of Sociological Method

Durkheim’s manifesto for sociology as a science with a subject of its own. Its central move is to define the “social fact” — a way of acting or thinking that exists outside any individual and exerts constraint on them — and to insist that social facts be treated as things, explained by other social facts rather than by psychology or individual intention. The rules that follow 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.

Why it’s on the list: Assigned in UATX’s “Philosophy of Social Science” — the course is about whether and how the study of human beings can be a science at all, and Durkheim is the founding attempt to answer yes by specifying a method.

Where I saw it: The University of Austin’s Fall 2025 reading list, 65 Texts Our Students Are Reading, published November 13 2025 and saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 65-text curriculum is transcribed on UATX Fall Reading List.

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.