Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim (April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917) was a French sociologist. He is known for his contributions to sociology and anthropology. He is considered as one of the founding fathers of sociology. He thought that sociology should be scientific.
Émile Durkheim | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | David Émile Durkheim 15 April 1858 |
| Died | 15 November 1917 (aged 59) |
| Nationality | French |
| Alma mater | École Normale Supérieure |
| Known for | Sacred–profane dichotomy Collective consciousness Social fact Social integration Anomie Collective effervescence |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Philosophy, sociology, education, anthropology, religious studies |
| Institutions | University of Paris, University of Bordeaux |
| Influences | Immanuel Kant, René Descartes, Plato, Herbert Spencer, Aristotle, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Auguste Comte. William James, John Dewey, Fustel de Coulanges, Jean-Marie Guyau, Charles Bernard Renouvier, John Stuart Mill |
| Influenced | Marcel Mauss, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Talcott Parsons, Maurice Halbwachs, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, Bronisław Malinowski, Fernand Braudel, Pierre Bourdieu, Charles Taylor, Henri Bergson, Emmanuel Levinas, Steven Lukes, Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Paul Fauconnet, Robert N. Bellah, Ziya Gökalp, David Bloor, Randall Collins, Neil Smelser[1] |
Life
Durkheim was born in the eastern French province of Lorraine. He studied at École Normale Supérieure. He made contributions on topics such as education, crime, religion, suicide, and many other topics related to sociology.
Durkheim died in Paris, aged 59.
Works
Suicide
Durkheim is famous for his work on suicide. In this, he analyzed the causes of suicide in the perspective of society.[2] His theory has two core principles:
- That the way people are connected to each other in a group can affect how likely they are to commit suicide;[2] and
- That suicide is related to how much a person feels like they belong to their community (social integration) and how much they follow the rules and beliefs of their society (moral integration).[2]
Durkheim was not interested on the individual aspect of suicide, instead, he viewed suicide as a result of a "collective breakdown of society". Moreover, he viewed it as a symptom of the large issues in society.[2]
Functions of a society
Durkheim believed that society is built on shared rules and values. These rules help to keep society functioning smoothly. For example, institutions like schools, families, and governments, play a key role in upholding these rules and values. They're not just about practical things like education or law enforcement; they also help to shape our morals and beliefs.[3]
Émile Durkheim Media
A collection of Durkheim's courses on the origins of socialism (1896), edited and published by his nephew, Marcel Mauss, in 1928
Grave of Émile Durkheim, the founder of sociology, in Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, France.
Cover of the French edition of The Rules of Sociological Method (1919)
Cover of the French edition of The Division of Labour in Society
Related pages
Other websites
References
- ↑ Alexander, Jeffrey C.; Marx, Gary T.; Williams, Christine L. (2004). "Trust as an Aspect of Social Structure". In Alexander, Jeffrey C.; Marx, Gary T.; Williams, Christine L. (eds.). Self, Social Structure, and Beliefs: Explorations in Sociology. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. pp. 145–146. ISBN 978-0-520-24137-4.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Mueller, Anna S.; Abrutyn, Seth; Pescosolido, Bernice; Diefendorf, Sarah (2021-03-31). "The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention". Frontiers in Psychology. 12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621569. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 8044307. PMID 33868089.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link) - ↑ Neuhouser, Frederick, ed. (2022), "Durkheim: Solidarity, Moral Facts, and Social Pathology", Diagnosing Social Pathology: Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Durkheim, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 192–228, ISBN 978-1-009-23503-7, retrieved 2024-10-24