In his work The Rules of Sociological Method
, Durkheim set forth one of his most
important contributions to sociology: the idea
that societies are built on social facts. Social facts
are patterned ways of acting, thinking, and feeling
that exist outside any one individual but that
exert social control over each person. Durkheim
believed that social facts must be explained by other
social facts—by reference to the social structure
rather than to individual attributes.