SOCIOL 1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: The Sociological Imagination, Social Fact, Herd Mentality
Document Summary
There are ways of acting, thinking and feeling which possess the remarkable property of existing outside the consciousness of the individual. It asserts itself as soon as i try to resist. You can resist against the social fact, but not with penalties. Manners of acting, thinking and feeling external to the individual, which are invested with a coercive power by virtue of which they exercise control over him. All social constraints do not necessarily exclude the individual personality. Just because we don"t notice the pressure to do something doesn"t mean the pressure does not exist. Education sets out precisely with the object of creating a social being. Thoughts to be found in the consciousness of each individual and movements which are repeated by all individuals are not necessarily social facts. What constitutes social facts are the beliefs, tendencies and practices of the group taken collectively.
