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Social facts are things such as institutions, norms and values which exist external to the individual and constrain the individual.

The problem I’m getting is that “fact” means a truth, at least to me. It is a fact that sky (on a clear day) looks blue, it’s a fact that humans love conditionally, it is a fact that murder is a crime in South Africa. But calling the set of rules of law ministry a “social fact” seems quite indigestible. According to the definition I gave above, cremation is not a process but a “social fact”.

Can someone suggest another term for “social fact”? They are calling a church a “social fact”.

Yosef Baskin
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ConGovDeIn
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    I think you're quoting Durkhelm and this may be more of a matter of sociology and its jargon than plain English. You do seem to be conflating "social fact" and an event or process, which are two different meanings of fact (among many more). Perhaps this is the germ of an answer; do you have more context for your sentence starting "But calling the set of rules..."? That sentence doesn't seem to have much to do with what comes before it as you haven't mentioned any "rules of law ministry" or cremation. – Andrew Leach Jul 13 '21 at 16:50
  • I don’t quite know what a social fact is but it seems odd that you use “it is a fact that murder is a crime in South Africa” as an example of what you’re comfortable with. That seems like a norm from an institution that constrains the individual – Unrelated Jul 13 '21 at 16:53
  • @Unrelated Under penal laws of South Africa, murder is put a crime for which punishment is defined. So, it is a truth that murder is a crime in South Africa. – ConGovDeIn Jul 13 '21 at 16:57
  • @AndrewLeach Rules of law ministry mean any rules which are legalised in a country. – ConGovDeIn Jul 13 '21 at 16:59
  • Related: Does a fact have to be true? – Robusto Jul 13 '21 at 17:43
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    Your sentence is defining social fact. For you. So you don't confuse it with the term fact that you know. It's sociology jargon. There's nothing to change here. – Tinfoil Hat Jul 13 '21 at 17:45

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I would call such things social constructs and/or customs.

A social construct or construction is the meaning, notion, or connotation placed on an object or event by a society, and adopted by the inhabitants of that society with respect to how they view or deal with the object or event.[6] In that respect, a social construct as an idea would be widely accepted as natural by the society.
— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_construct

Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
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  • Well, that seems fine: A Church is a social construction. – ConGovDeIn Jul 13 '21 at 17:48
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    Social constructs are one kind of social fact. But not all social facts are social constructs. From the Wikipedia article, "Among the most noted of Durkheim's work was his discovery of the "social fact" of suicide rates. By carefully examining police suicide statistics in different districts, Durkheim demonstrated that the suicide rate of Catholic communities is lower than that of Protestant communities." Differing rates of suicide is probably not usefully described as a social construct. – Juhasz Jul 13 '21 at 18:29
  • @Juhasz: All right, but then it becomes an extremely broad category, basically any fact related to people's behaviour? But social constructs aren't really facts most of the time, so 'facts and non-facts related to people's behaviour'? Or 'the subject matter of sociology'? – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jul 13 '21 at 19:32
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    I think the second paraphrase is probably close to the mark. Remember that Durkheim, who coined the term (or "fait social" to be exact), founded sociology as an academic discipline. In this context - creating a new field of study - social fact seems like a (somewhat) useful way of organizing a (somewhat) discrete field of study. The properties and behaviors of matter - which is the purview of chemistry - is extremely broad as well. – Juhasz Jul 13 '21 at 20:04