Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist. His goal was to establish Sociology as an independent academic discipline. With this aim in mind, he published ‘The Rules of Sociological Method’ in 1895 to describe the scientific method of inquiry in sociology. In the same publication, he introduced a new term ‘Social Fact’ by defining sociology as the science of social facts.

Durkheim believed that social facts are the ways of behaving which are external to the individual, and which exerts some force on the individual to shape his behavior.

The above explanation of social facts gives three characteristics of social facts, as follows.

1. Social facts are ways of behavior (e.g., acting, thinking and feeling)
2. Social facts are external to the individual.
3. Social facts exert a force on the individual to shape his behavior.

The above characteristics can be summed up to define social facts as external influences that shape the social behavior of an individual. Based on this explanation, social facts are simply social norms and values. Social norms are the social expectations - which means - that how an individual is expected to behave in a social context. In other words, it means how others expect from us to behave in a social context. Therefore, social norms act as an external force that exerts coercive pressure on us to behave in a specific manner. In this way, the social norms can be understood as social facts.

Durkheim defined sociology as the scientific study of social facts. It can be implied that sociology is the scientific study of social norms. However, Durkheim intentionally used the term social fact in order to not restrict the subject matter of sociology only to social norms. Therefore, he used a broad term (instead of social norms) to have wider criteria for the subject matter of sociology. The social facts are not limited only to social norms and can include any external factor which exerts some force on an individual to behave in a specific manner. Though social norms are the major source of external influence which shape our behaviour, there can also be other factors which become the basis for patronizing the social behaviour of people such as formal laws, legal rules, the penal system and so on. Therefore, social facts include all the factors which are external to an individual, and which exert some force on the individual to shape their behavior in different ways.

Again, it is important to note that our social norms, values, customs and traditions are the major social facts because these are external influences which shape the major part of our routine behaviour. For this reason, most sociologists have interpreted social facts as social norms and values. For instance, Catherine, a known British sociologist, argued that by the term social facts, Durkheim meant social norms and values. This interpretation of social facts is also supported by many other sociologists because these social norms, values, customs and traditions are basic determinants of social behaviour. These are the main areas focused on by sociologists to understand the social behaviour of individuals. Therefore, as Durkheim defined sociology as the study of social facts, it again points to the interpretation of social facts as norms and values.

Durkheim’s purpose of introducing the term social fact in the realm of sociology was:

1. To establish sociology as an independent discipline: Sociology was initially not a separate discipline but a part of history and economics. Durkheim wanted to establish sociology as an independent discipline. To achieve this goal, he published many works where he argued that sociology is not a part of any other discipline but is itself a distinct discipline. He wanted that sociology, like any other discipline, must have a common concept as the focus of all areas of its study. Therefore, he coined the term social fact to define sociology as the study of social fact. As noted above, the term social fact (as determiner or influencer of social behaviour) is a common focus of all areas of sociology.
2. To describe the subject-matter of this newly emerging science: Durkheim has contributed a lot to the field of sociology. He was the first academic sociologist as the University of Bordeaux awarded him first academic appointment in sociology in 1817. Through his practical efforts and scholarly contributions, sociology emerged as a new science. He presented his ideas in his published works to describe the subject-matter of this newly emerging science. For instance, in his article ‘The Rules of Sociological Method’ in 1895, he laid down foundation of the scientific method of inquiry for acquisition of sociological knowledge. In the same publication, he defined sociology as the scientific study of social facts – the collective patterns of behavior. This offered the basic theme of the sociological study that is – social behaviour. The theme offered by the term social fact is the basis for different areas of the subject matter of sociology. In other words, different areas of subject matter sociology revolve around this basic theme – social fact.

Emile Durkheim published his famous Theory of Suicide in 1897. In this theory, he has explored the phenomena of suicide with regards to its causative factors. He was of the view that biological and psychological factors are not sufficient to explain the act of suicide because he believed that the real causes of suicide are social factors. He argued that motives for suicide cannot be understood without probing into its social causes. 

He argued that suicide is a social fact. He believed that like any other behavior, suicidal behavior is also shaped by external social factors. There are certain social factors that may make a person prone to suicide. These factors reside in the social context which may act as an external force on the individual to commit suicide.

For this reason, suicide can be seen as a behaviour pattern in some areas. For instance, there are some countries which have high suicide rate than other countries. In countries with high suicide rates, the suicide rate remained constantly high for a long time. For example, Hungary remained on the top in terms of a high suicidal rate for about half a century. Moreover, there are general similarities in causes and methods of suicide in a specific region. For instance, in traditional societies, when a wife of an old farmer died, the farmer committed suicide and this practice was seen repetitively. It means that in some societies, suicide is the way of dealing with or getting rid of problems. Constant rate of suicide for a long time in a region as well as similarities in causes and methods of suicide in that region reveal that 1) suicide is a behavior pattern and 2) there are some social factors for suicide which are specific to the social context where suicides are committed. This implies that suicide is a social fact because there are social factors exerting force on individuals to adopt a behaviour pattern for committing suicide.