1. That individuals have the right to shape their own destiny.

   • Not the best choice. Durkheim was not describing "rights," but using sociological method to deterimine how much freedom and how much constraint individuals actually seemed to have. This answer misdirects our attention to the issue of distributive justice, when Durkheim wanted to see how socialization, for which there was no word then, affected the freedom we did have.

2. That social theory is about relationships.

   • Not the best choice. Durkheim's interest was more structural. He considered that there were explanations for some behaviors that could be predicted by studying the patterns of human behavior, without taking into account the individuals who made up that behavior. Today we would speak of macro and micro levels.

3. That individuals are less than completly free to choose their emotions and arguments.

   • My pick for best choice. Durkheim saw that the community, the collective of individuals, affected the emotions that individuals assumed came to them "naturally," as though such emotions or expectations, or desires were inevitable. Durkheim had the great insight that our choices, expectations, desires are not "inevitable" and "natural," but shaped by the culture and groups in which we live.

4. That social facts are normative.

   • Not the best choice. Social facts are normatively constructed. That means that the whole collective shares in expectations and enforcement of the norms, and the construction of the social facts. But Durkheim's primary concern at this time was how much of human society needs to be explained by understanding the individual (psychology and social psychology) and how much can be explained by understanding the collective and the collective's constraint on the individual.

---

---