Émile Durkheim

French sociologist (1858–1917)

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France rank#135

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Fame75.8
Momentum10.0
France rank#135
Academics rank#82
Wikipedia44.9K

Lived 1858–1917, aged 59France

France AcademicsAcademic

Wikipedia
102 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in France
#135
Academics
Era
1858–1917
Aged 59
Awards
1
recognised work

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He turned the study of society into a science. Before Durkheim, social thought was philosophy and speculation; after him, it was data, method, and structural analysis — the template every sociology department still follows.

Biography

About

Émile Durkheim was born 15 April 1858 in France and spent his career proving that collective life could be studied with the rigor of natural science. His 1893 work The Division of Labour in Society examined how modern economies hold together when old religious bonds fray. In 1895 he published The Rules of Sociological Method, set up Europe's first sociology department, and became France's first professor of the discipline. His 1897 monograph Suicide used statistics on Catholic and Protestant populations to show that even the most private act follows social patterns, splitting sociology off fro…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Émile Durkheim

Émile Durkheim

said1911

Kant postulates God, since without this hypothesis morality is unintelligible.

— Sociology and philosophy (1911), D. Pocock, trans. (1974), p. 51.

Émile Durkheim

said1908

There is no sociology worthy of the name which does not possess a historical character.

— Émile Durkheim, Debate on Explanation in History and Sociology (1908).

Émile Durkheim

said1893

This work had its origins in the question of the relations of the individual to social solidarity.

— Preface

Émile Durkheim

said1893

The division of labour is not of recent origin, but it was only at the end of the eighteenth century that social cognizance was taken of the principle.

— p. 39; Lead paragraph

Émile Durkheim

said1893