Methodological Orientation of Emile Durkhiem

The Rules were written in 1895, and represent Durkheim's hope to develop a systematic sociology. Substantively, Durkheim is interested in that which held society together, and was writing in response to two types of arguments he disagreed with. In his conceptualization of a social fact, he is arguing against social contract theorists, such as Hobbes and Rousseau, who saw all of life in contractual terms. On their view, individuals were constrained by society, but deliberately so: people designed the constraints to guide society through the repression of individual will with a strong state.