Emile Durkheim

"Sociology can then be defined as the science of institutions, of their genesis and of their functioning." (from The Rules of Sociological Method)

Emile Durkheim was born on April 15, 1858 at Epinal, Vosges, in Lorraine, France, the son of Moïse Durkheim, the Chief Rabbi of the Vosges and Haute-Marne, and his wife Mélanie, a merchant's daughter. Since Emile's father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all been rabbis, it was expected that young Emile would follow suit, so he was sent to a a rabbinical school. However, things did not turn out as planned when Emile moved to Paris.

When he was in his early teens, Durkheim took an interest in Catholicism, but he also abandoned that religion as well, realizing that he preferred to study religion from an agnostic standpoint as opposed to being indoctrinated. This in no way meant that he was rejecting his heritage, as he remained close to his family and the Jewish community. Durkheim was a brilliant student, and was awarded several prizes and honors. His high intellect and academic excellence earned him early advancement, and baccalaureates in Letters 1874, and Sciences in 1875, at the Collège d’Epinal, as well as high distinction in the Concours Général. which had made it easy for him to be accepted at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris.

But Durkheim's real academic ambition was not the Lycée, but rather the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure, which he worked tenaciously to gain acceptance therein. Durkheim's father had become ill, and he was staying in a pension, which made him quite depressed. Furthermore, Durkheim's scientific way thinking did not make it easy for him to do well in the studies he required to gain admittance into the Ecole Normale Supérieure. It wasn't until 1879, at the age of 21, on the third try that he finally attained his goal, joining the ranks of other great intellectual and political leaders such as socialist Jean Jaurès, psychologist Pierre Janet, philosophers Henri Bergson, Felix Rauh and Maurice Blondel, all of whom had been, or were soon to be studying at the the famed institution.

Durkheim and this group of young thinkers were involved in political and philosophical discussions, most of which focused on the Republican cause, of which Durkheim, along with his friend Jaurès were strong proponents. Durkheim had great admiration for Léon Gambetta, one of the founders of the French Third Republic, and Jules Ferry, who introduced the anti-clerical reform that made primary education obligatory, free, and non-clerical, but his own interest in education centered more upon teaching methods, which had long been literary, and which he felt needed to be scientific, and it was this issue which fueled his orations. It was then, that Durkheim found allies in philosophers Emile Boutroux, Charles Renouvier, and historian Numas-Denis Fustel de Coulanges.

Though he became ill in 1881, Durkheim passed the difficult examination required for admission to the teaching staff of state secondary schools, and was soon thereafter teaching philosophy. 5 years later, in 1887, Durkheim married Louise Dreyfus, with whom he had a son, André, and later a daughter, Marie. It was also that same year that Durkheim was appointed "Chargé des Cours de Pédagogie et de Sciences Sociales" at Bordeaux, by departing teacher Alfred Espinas and Louis Liard, a devoted republican who was then Director of Higher Education in France. The "Sciences Sociales" part of the appointment had been tailored to fit Durkheim's new ideas, and thus, sociology became part of the French academic curriculum.

Although he stressed the importance of socialism in philosophy, law, and history, Emile Durkheim faced opposition from the humanist Faculty of Letters members, who were somewhat afraid that his distinct explanations of legal and moral institutions through reference to purely social causes threatened volition and individual moral duty. Nonetheless, Durkheim did manage to make friends and allies of some of his colleagues, particularily with philosophers Octave Hamelin, and Georges Rodier, who both helped promote Durkheim's rationalist ideas in opposition to the intuitionism, and mysticism, which were now losing their appeal.

While he was at Bordeaux, Emile Durkheim lectured on the history and practice of education, in this excerpt from his 1888 "Course in Sociology: Opening Lecture", he states "...by becoming more specialized, science comes closer to things which are themselves specialized. It thus becomes more objective, more impersonal, and, consequently, accessible to the full range of individual talents and to all workers of good will.". His social science courses and public lectures focused of the study of law, religion, and socialism, and the more specific issues crime, incest, kinship, totemism, and suicide.

In 1893, Durkheim published his first major work, "De la division du travail social" (The Division of Labor in Society), in which he introduced the concept of "anomie", which described the breakdown of the influence of social norms on individuals within a society, meaning that people were no longer expected to abide by a set of sociological rules, and no longer knew what to expect from one another. In 1894, he was permanently appointed associate professor at Bordeaux. In 1895, he published "Les Règles de la méthode sociologique" (The Rules of Sociological Method), his second most important work. In 1897, he published his third major work, "Le Suicide: étude de sociologie" (Suicide : A Study in Sociology).

Two years later, he established an important journalistic collaboration program, which leads to the foundation of the "L'Année Sociologique, France's first Social Science Journal. Prior to this breakthrough, the only publication to have a Sociology section was "La Revue philosophique", which had featured some of Durkheim's writings. In 1902, the chair of "Science of Education", occupied by Ferdinand Buisson, a man instrumental in the implementation of Jules Ferry's educational reforms, became available due to his appointment to the Chamber of Deputies. Durkheim was soon thereafter appointed "Chargé de Cours" at the Sorbonne, and four years later, was made Professeur, later taking over Buisson's chair, which was subsequently named the chair of "Science of Education and Sociology".

In 1912, Durkheim published his fourth major work, "Les Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse" (The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life), by then, his scientific approach to every social phenomenon, had not only managed to draw the ire of the Catholic Church, some philosophers, and the Right Wing, but he had also gained quite a fair bit of power in the world of academia; his lecture courses were required curriculum for all philosophy, literature, and history students. Durkheim also educated the next generation of teachers who were also glad to follow in his footsteps.

In 1914, Germany invaded Belgium and the north of France, which was followed by the attack of east Prussia by the Russians, which caused General Coblenz von Motke to relocate some of his troops to the eastern front. The combined efforts of the French and British armies successfully repelled the German forces, changing the entire course of the war, as it was the first time the Germans had been forced to retreat. This development pleased Durkheim, who even if he wasn't a nationalist, showed his patriotism by preparing a series of documents, including patriotic leaflets which served to instill national pride, and others devised to counter German propaganda in neutral countries.

Durkheim himself was discriminated against as a Jew with a German name, but he nonetheless managed to remain patriotic, despite his failing health, and the loss of his son André who had been fighting on the Bulgarian front in 1916. André was a brilliant young sociolinguist, and he had recently been recruited to teach at the Lycée. Durkheim was so upset by the loss of his son that he demanded that no one speak his son's name in his presence. The tragedy also motivated Durkheim to become more involved in the war, up until he suffered a stroke during one of his impassioned speeches. On November 15th 1917, after spending several months convalescing, Emile Durkheim died, at the age of 59.

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