cipate in the biggest free nature photography contest and compete for a

photographic expedition! From the 1st to the 31st of July!

Contents hide
(Top)
Early life and education
Academic career
Death
Methodology
Inspirations

Durkheim and theory

Influence and legacy

Selected works
References

Further reading
External links
Émile Durkheim

Article
Talk
Read
Edit
View history

Tools
Appearance hide
Text

Small
Standard

Large
Width

Standard

Wide
Color (beta)

Automatic

Light

Dark
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Durkheim" redirects here. For the spa town in Germany, see Bad Dürkheim.
Émile Durkheim

Born David Émile Durkheim

15 April 1858
Épinal, France
Died 15 November 1917 (aged 59)
Paris, France
Alma mater École normale supérieure
University of Berlin
University of Leipzig
University of Marburg
Known for Social fact
Sacred–profane dichotomy
Collective consciousness
Social integration
Anomie
Collective representations
Collective effervescence
Scientific rationalism
Scientific career
Fields Philosophy, sociology, education, anthropology, religious studies
Institutions University of Paris
University of Bordeaux
David Émile Durkheim (/ˈdɜːrkhaɪm/;[1] French: [emil dyʁkɛm] or [dyʁkajm];
15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim
formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly
cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, along with
both Karl Marx and Max Weber.[2][3]

Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies can maintain
their integrity and coherence in modernity, an era in which traditional social
and religious ties are much less universal, and in which new social
institutions have come into being. Durkheim's conception of the scientific
study of society laid the groundwork for modern sociology, and he used such
scientific tools as statistics, surveys, and historical observation in his
analysis of suicides in Roman Catholic and Protestant groups.

Durkheim's first major sociological work was De la division du travail social

(1893; The Division of Labour in Society), followed in 1895 by Les Règles de
la méthode sociologique (The Rules of Sociological Method). Also in 1895
Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology and became
France's first professor of sociology.[4] Durkheim's seminal monograph, Le
Suicide (1897), a study of suicide rates in Roman Catholic and Protestant
populations, pioneered modern social research, serving to distinguish social
science from psychology and political philosophy. In 1898, he established
the journal L'Année sociologique. Les formes élémentaires de la vie
religieuse (1912; The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life) presented a
theory of religion, comparing the social and cultural lives of aboriginal and
modern societies.

Durkheim was preoccupied with the acceptance of sociology as a legitimate

science. Refining the positivism originally set forth by Auguste Comte, he
promoted what could be considered as a form of epistemological realism, as
well as the use of the hypothetico-deductive model in social science. For
Durkheim, sociology was the science of institutions, understanding the term
in its broader meaning as the "beliefs and modes of behaviour instituted by
the collectivity,"[5] with its aim being to discover structural social facts. As
such, Durkheim was a major proponent of structural functionalism, a
foundational perspective in both sociology and anthropology. In his view,
social science should be purely holistic[i] in the sense that sociology should
study phenomena attributed to society at large, rather than being limited to
the study of specific actions of individuals.

He remained a dominant force in French intellectual life until his death in

1917, presenting numerous lectures and publishing works on a variety of
topics, including the sociology of knowledge, morality, social stratification,
religion, law, education, and deviance. Some terms that he coined, such as
"collective consciousness", are now also used by laypeople.[6]

Early life and education

David Émile Durkheim was born 15 April 1858 in Épinal, Lorraine, France, to
Mélanie (Isidor) and Moïse Durkheim,[7][8] coming into a long lineage of
devout French Jews. His parents had four other children: Israël (1845-1846),
[ii] Rosine (1848-1930), Félix (1850-1889) and Céline (1851-1931).[9]
Durkheim came from a long line of rabbis, stretching back eight
generations,[iii] including his father, grandfather, and great-
grandfather[10]: 1 and began his education in a rabbinical school. However
at an early age he switched schools, deciding not to follow in his family's
footsteps.[11][10]: 1 In fact Durkheim led a completely secular life, whereby
much of his work was dedicated to demonstrating that religious phenomena
stemmed from social rather than divine factors. Nevertheless Durkheim did
not sever ties with his family nor with the Jewish community.[10]: 1 However
many of his most prominent collaborators and students were Jewish, some
even being blood relatives. For instance Marcel Mauss, a notable social
anthropologist of the prewar era, was his nephew.[2]

A precocious student, Durkheim entered the École normale supérieure (ENS)

in 1879, at his third attempt.[11][10]: 2 The entering class that year was one
of the most brilliant of the nineteenth century, as many of his classmates,
such as Jean Jaurès and Henri Bergson, went on to become major figures in
France's intellectual history as well. At the ENS, Durkheim studied under the
direction of Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges, a classicist with a social-
scientific outlook, and wrote his Latin dissertation on Montesquieu.[12] At
the same time, he read Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, whereby
Durkheim became interested in a scientific approach to society early on in
his career.[11] This meant the first of many conflicts with the French
academic system, which had no social science curriculum at the time.
Durkheim found humanistic studies uninteresting, turning his attention from
psychology and philosophy to ethics and, eventually, sociology.[11] He
obtained his agrégation in philosophy in 1882, though finishing next to last
in his graduating class owing to serious illness the year before.[13]

The opportunity for Durkheim to receive a major academic appointment in

Paris was inhibited by his approach to society. From 1882 to 1887 he taught
philosophy at several provincial schools.[14] In the 1885-6 school year he
visited Germany, where he travelled and studied sociology at the
universities of Marburg, Berlin and Leipzig.[14] As Durkheim indicated in
several essays, it was in Leipzig that he learned to appreciate the value of
empiricism and its language of concrete, complex things, in sharp contrast
to the more abstract, clear and simple ideas of the Cartesian method.[15]
By 1886, as part of his doctoral dissertation, he had completed the draft of
his The Division of Labour in Society, and was working towards establishing
the new science of sociology.[14]

Academic career

A collection of Durkheim's courses on the origins of socialism (1896), edited

and published by his nephew, Marcel Mauss, in 1928
Durkheim's period in Germany resulted in the publication of numerous
articles on German social science and philosophy; Durkheim was particularly
impressed by the work of Wilhelm Wundt.[14] Durkheim's articles gained
recognition in France, and he received a teaching appointment in the
University of Bordeaux in 1887, where he was to teach the university's first
social science course.[14] His official title was Chargé d'un Cours de Science
Sociale et de Pédagogie, thus he taught both pedagogy and sociology (the
latter having never been taught in France before).[4][10]: 3 The
appointment of the social scientist to the mostly humanistic faculty was an
important sign of changing times and the growing importance and
recognition of the social sciences.[14] From this position Durkheim helped
reform the French school system, introducing the study of social science in
its curriculum. However, his controversial beliefs that religion and morality
could be explained in terms purely of social interaction earned him many
critics.[citation needed]

Also in 1887, Durkheim married Louise Dreyfus. They had two children,
Marie and André.[4]

The 1890s were a period of remarkable creative output for Durkheim.[14] In

1893, he published The Division of Labour in Society, his doctoral
dissertation and fundamental statement of the nature of human society and
its development.[10]: x Durkheim's interest in social phenomena was
spurred on by politics. France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War led to the
fall of the regime of Napoleon III, which was then replaced by the Third
Republic. This in turn resulted in a backlash against the new secular and
republican rule, as many people considered a vigorously nationalistic
approach necessary to rejuvenate France's fading power. Durkheim, a Jew
and a staunch supporter of the Third Republic with a sympathy towards
socialism, was thus in the political minority, a situation that galvanized him
politically. The Dreyfus affair of 1894 only strengthened his activist stance.
[16]

In 1895, he published The Rules of Sociological Method,[14] a manifesto

stating what sociology is and how it ought to be done, and founded the first
European department of sociology at the University of Bordeaux. In 1898, he
founded L'Année sociologique, the first French social science journal.[14] Its
aim was to publish and publicize the work of what was, by then, a growing
number of students and collaborators (this is also the name used to refer to
the group of students who developed his sociological program). In 1897, he
published Suicide, a case study that provided an example of what a
sociological monograph might look like. Durkheim was one of the pioneers
of the use of quantitative methods in criminology, which he used in his
study of suicide.[17]

By 1902, Durkheim had finally achieved his goal of attaining a prominent

position in Paris when he became the chair of education at the Sorbonne.
Durkheim had aimed for the position earlier, but the Parisian faculty took
longer to accept what some called "sociological imperialism" and admit
social science to their curriculum.[16] He became a full professor
(specifically, Professor of the Science of Education) there in 1906, and in
1913 he was named chair in "Education and Sociology".[4][16] Because
French universities are technically institutions for training secondary school
teachers, this position gave Durkheim considerable influence—his lectures
were the only ones that were mandatory for the entire student body.
Durkheim had much influence over the new generation of teachers; around
that time he also served as an advisor to the Ministry of Education.[4] In
1912, he published his last major work, The Elementary Forms of the
Religious Life.