Emile Durkheim French sociologist Emile
Durkheim (1858–1917) stressed that people are
the product of their social environment and that
behavior cannot be understood fully in terms of
individual biological and psychological traits. He
believed that the limits of human potential are
socially based, not biologically based.
In his work Th e Rules of Sociological Method
(1964a/1895), 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.
Durkheim observed that rapid social change
and a more specialized division of labor produce
strains in society. Th ese strains lead to a breakdown
in traditional organization, values, and authority
and to a dramatic increase in anomie—a condition
in which social control becomes ineff ective as a
result of the loss of shared values and of a sense of
purpose in society. According to Durkheim, anomie
is most likely to occur during a period of rapid
social change. In Suicide (1964b/1897), he explored