A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF EMILE DURKHEIM

• Emile Durkheim [1858-1917] was the most prominent French sociologist of the 19th century.
• He was an erudite scholar, a deep thinker, a progressive educationist, an effective writer, and a strict disciplinarian.
• Unlike Spencer, Durkheim acknowledged Comte as his master and adopted positivistic empiricism, but went further to establish sociology as an empirical science.
• He insisted that sociology must follow the scientific method to be recognised as a science.
• Born into a Jewish family on 15th April 1858 in Epinal, Lorraine, France, Durkheim studied Hebrew, the Old Testament, and the Talmud, but remained agnostic throughout his life.
• Durkheim excelled as a student, winning several prizes, but was dissatisfied with conventional subjects and sought education in scientific methods and moral principles.
• He graduated from the Ecole Normale in Paris and taught philosophy in provincial schools between 1882 and 1887.
• In Germany, he was influenced by Wilhelm Wundt’s scientific psychology, which shaped his sociological approach.
• Upon returning to France, Durkheim published articles based on his German experience, gaining prominence in the University of Bordeaux, where he headed the Social Science department in 1887.
• He published key works, including:
  1. The Division of Labour in Society (1893).
  2. The Rules of Sociological Method (1895).
  3. Suicide (1897).
  4. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912).
• In 1902, he joined the Sorbonne and became Professor of the Science of Education in 1906, a title later updated to include sociology in 1913.
• Durkheim was deeply engaged in French politics and was respected as a political liberalist, with a strong focus on moral education.
• He aimed to reverse the moral degeneration in French society, advocating for collective values inspired by di Maistre, St. Simon, and Comte, and opposed individualist ideas like those of Spencer.
• Durkheim criticized Marxian socialism, calling it disputable and out-of-date, and rejected the notion of the proletariat as society’s savior, opposing agitation and violence.
• The moral decline of French society deeply disappointed him, contributing to his death in 1917 at the age of 59.
• Durkheim’s influence on sociology is enduring, with the journal he founded, Anne Sociologique (1896), continuing as a leading publication in sociological thought.
• His contributions remain alive in areas such as functionalism, sociology of education, sociology of law, and sociology of religion.
• Main works of Durkheim:
  1. The Division of Labour in Society (1893).
  2. The Rules of Sociological Method (1895).
  3. Suicide (1897).
  4. Collective and Individual Representations (1899).
  5. Judgements of Reality and Judgements of Value (1911).
  6. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912).
  7. Professional Ethics and Civic Morals.