Emile Durkheim - Social Facts - Nonmaterial

George Washington was an American hero!  That's what my son told me throughout the month of February when we celebrate President's Day as well as George Washington's birthday.  Durkheim would say that this reverence for our first president would be considered a nonmaterial social fact falling under the collective representation category.  A nonmaterial fact is a norm, value, or the culture of society. These are not tangible items like material social facts.  Durkheim described these facts by forming four different types.  Morality, collective conscience, collective representations, and social currents.  They are all external as well as coercive to the individual. They also can be studied empirically.  George Washington as a collective representation gives the perfect example of the definition: collective ideas and social force.  They are the norms, values, and beliefs within our society.  American's take pride in our presidents and create a hero type of image to portray their importance to our youth. This is the American collective representation of George Washington.