Emil Durkheim biography briefly and interesting facts

Emil Durkheim a brief biography and interesting facts from the life of the French sociologist and philosopher, the founder of the French sociological school, the predecessor of structural-functional analysis are described in this article.

Emil Durkheim short biography

Emil Durkheim was born April 15, 1858 in France in the town of Epinal. After graduating from the local lyceum, he enters the Paris Higher Normal School. He received a philosophical education and began teaching at provincial lyceums. In the teaching period of 1882 - 1887, he developed an interest in social and political life, its theoretical critical understanding.

A year, from 1885 to 1886, Durkheim first in Paris, later in Germany studying philosophy, ethics and social sciences. Since 1887, he has been teaching social sciences at a higher education institution in Bordeaux. Here he also establishes a social school, the heart of which is the Sociological Yearbook. The publication quickly gained recognition in public circles. In the period from 1902 to 1917 he gave lectures on sociology at the Sorbonne.

The scientist developed many theories. Emil Durkheim owns the theory of suicide, the theory of the evolutionary development of society, and the concept of organic and mechanical solidarity. In the process of developing new theories and concepts, he outlined a new subject of the science of sociology. According to the theory of Emil Durkheim, the subject of sociology is social facts that cannot be reduced to other areas - biological, psychological, physical. Facts have their own content.

Emil Durkheim was the first Western sociologist to introduce the concept of “applied sociology”. He believed that this science provides society with a set of rules on social behavior for a person.

He died of a stroke in Paris on November 15, 1917.

The main works of Emil Durkheim are “On the Division of Social Labor”, “Suicide” and “Elementary Forms of Religious Life”.

Emil Durkheim interesting facts

• In 1887, Durkheim married Luisa Dreyfus, daughter of a foundry manager. In marriage with her, two children were born - Andre and Marie.
• In 1882, while studying at the university, he was the penultimate student in the class. But still, Emil Durkheim passed the exams and received his right to teach.
• Durkheim belongs to the introduction into the scientific circulation of a number of popular terms today, for example, “ collective consciousness ”.
• Durkheim paid particular attention to the study of suicides. He identified the following types: egoistic, altruistic, anomic, fatalistic.
• At the University, Durkheim wrote a dissertation in Latin, which he devoted to the work of Montesquieu .