A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint; or again, every way of acting which is general throughout a given society, while at the same time existing in its own right independent of its individual manifestations.


The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), 8th edition, trans. Sarah A. Solovay and John M. Mueller, ed. George E. G. Catlin (1938, 1964 edition)

Émile Durkheim Quotes

A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint; or again, every way of acting...

A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint; or again, every way of acting...

A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint; or again, every way of acting...

A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint; or again, every way of acting...