Durkheim was great the systemizing one of sociology. It defended that the main task of sociology was the analysis of the social facts, since these? according to definition of Durkheim? they had a external and independent existence of the individuals. Another characteristic of the social facts is that these have a coercitive power on the individuals, that many times nor perceive this action. They exert its conditioning power on the individuals through forms that can vary of a simple ones badly-understood (as in the case of the use of a word missed in a colloquy) until the punishment or penalty (in the case of an infraction or crime). The social fact teaches Durkheim, is intangible and alone they can be analyzed through its effect, as the written laws, the norms techniques, etc. To study them, the researcher must leave of side its preconceptions and use itself of concepts generated only in the prxis scientific.
One of the first questions that Durkheim if placed in its studies is as a group of individuals can constitute a society and as this if it keeps coesa, persisting in the time? It called to this phenomenon of social and moral solidarity, that is, the way as the members of a group remain joined, sharing a set of values and customs. But, what it is and as if of this solidarity? In its workmanship the social division of the work (1893), Durkheim created the solidarity concepts mechanics and organic solidarity, to explain the origin of the cohesion enters the members of a society. Solidarity mechanics is that one of the societies where the individuals do not differentiate themselves. When a society if form, exist little difference between its members. The components of the social group if are similar in diverse aspects; they have the same feelings, the same values, equal objectives. This fact is observed in primitive societies of the past and the societies not-scholars still spread by the world.