C H R I S T I N A B R O W ND A N I E L L A P U G A

T R O Y D A V I SK E N D R A A D E G B E S A N

ÉMILE DURKHEIM

Emile Durkheim was French social scientist. He

developed a vigorous methodology

combining empirical research with

sociological theory and is widely

regarded as the founder of the French school of sociology.

WHO WAS HE?

Emile Durkheim

BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION

EARLY YEARS

• Emile Durkheim was born on April 15th, 1858 in Epinal, France.• Birthed into a highly religious orthodox Jewish

family, his father, grandfather and great-grand father were all rabbis.• He was training to be a rabbi, but decided to not

go down that path.• Durkheim rejected the idealisms of religion, and

became more focused on reviewing it in an agnostic light.

EDUCATION

He attended the Collège d'Epinal where he prospered as a student. His intellect allowed him to skip two years. Emile finished his schooling with baccalauréats in Letters and Sciences in 1874 and 1875 respectively and the title of Concours Général .

COLLEGE LIFE

COLLEGE LIFE CONTINUED• Later on in life, Emile moved on to Paris to admit to the prestigious

Ecole Normale Supérieure, where he would begin to teach on the sciences. He had completely separated himself from his family’s religion.

• Unfortunately, his father fell ill, restricting the income of his family. Alone and broke in a new city, he fought for his admission into the school.

• His intellectual interests, already scientific rather than literary, were ill-fitted to the study of Latin and rhetoric essential for admission to the Ecole. After failing in his first two attempts at the entrance examination (in 1877 and 1878), Durkheim was at last admitted near the end of 1879.

ECOLE NORMALE SUPÉRIEURE

LATER LIFE

• Durkheim married Louise Dreyfus in 1887.• They had two children, Marie and André.• André died on the front lines of WWI. This

understandably caused his father a great amount of distress.• Durkheim died of a stroke in Paris in 1917.

RESEARCH HISTORY

RESEARCH HISTORY

• ‘The Division of Labor In Society’ -1893• ‘The Rules of Sociological Method’ -1895• ‘Suicide’ -1897• ‘The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life’ -

1912

CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIOLOGY

CONTRIBUTIONS

• Emile Durkheim pioneered sociology as a science• Many concepts have been derived from his

teachings such as social norms, values, socialization, and institutions• Durkheim set up the first European department of

Sociology at the University of Bordeaux in 1895• He wrote the first sociological study, ‘Suicide’

WHY IS HE IN OUR HALL OF FAME?

HALL OF FAME

• Emile Durkheim essentially created modern sociology.• He was the first professor of sociology.• He published several writings about sociology,

and most of the ideas proposed are still accepted today.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Emile Durkheim was an Aries