Editing Émile Durkheim (section)

==Methodology==
[[File:The Rules of the Sociological Method.jpg|thumb|right|Cover of the French edition of ''[[The Rules of Sociological Method]]'' (1919)]]
In ''[[The Rules of Sociological Method]]'' (1895), Durkheim expressed his desire to establish a [[Scientific method|method]] that would guarantee sociology's truly scientific character. One of the questions raised concerns the [[Objectivity (science)|objectivity]] of the sociologist: how may one study an object that, from the very beginning, conditions and relates to the observer? According to Durkheim, [[observation]] must be as impartial and impersonal as possible, even though a "perfectly objective observation" in this sense may never be attained. A social fact must always be studied according to its [[Relativism|relation]] with other social facts, never according to the individual who studies it. Sociology should therefore privilege [[Comparative method|comparison]] rather than the study of singular independent facts.<ref group="lower-roman">{{harvp|Collins|1975|p=539}}: "Durkheim was the first to seriously use the comparative method correctly in the scientific sense."</ref>

Durkheim sought to create one of the first rigorous scientific approaches to social phenomena. Along with [[Herbert Spencer]], he was one of the first people to explain the existence and quality of different parts of a society through referencing what function they served in maintaining the [[quotidian]] (i.e. by how they make society "work"). He also agreed with Spencer's [[organicism|organic analogy]], comparing society to a living organism.<ref name="Calhoun2002-104" /> As a result, his work is sometimes seen as a precursor to [[Structural functionalism|functionalism]].<ref name="Calhoun2002-103" /><ref>{{harvp|Hayward|1960a}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Hayward|1960b}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Thompson|2002}}</ref> Durkheim also insisted that society was [[Holism|more than the sum of its parts]].<ref group="lower-roman">Durkheim (1960/1892), p. 9: "Science cannot describe individuals, but only types. If human societies cannot be classified, they must remain inaccessible to scientific description."</ref><ref>Durkheim, Émile. 1960 [1892]. "Montesquieu's Contribution to the Rise of Social Science." In ''Montesquieu and Rousseau: Forerunners of Sociology'', translated by [[Ralph Manheim|R. Manheim]]. Ann Arbor: [[University of Michigan Press]]. p. 9.</ref>

Unlike his contemporaries [[Ferdinand Tönnies]] and [[Max Weber]], he did not focus on what motivates individuals' actions (an approach associated with [[methodological individualism]]), but rather on the study of ''[[social fact]]s''.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}