ÉMILE DURKHEIM 101 Sociology Series #2

FURTHER READING

Durkheim grew up in a traditional Jewish family which lived on a modest income. Durkheim’s father was an Orthodox Rabbi who served the Jewish community in the surrounding province while his mother worked outside the family home to add to the family’s income.

He studied for his doctorate at the École Normale, which is one of the most selective and prestigious graduate schools, in Paris in 1879 and in 1885 he received a fellowship to study at the University of Berlin for the year before obtaining a university position at Bordeaux.

He wrote several famous works including:

The Division of Labour in Society (1893)
The Rules of Sociological Method (1895)
Suicide (1897)
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912)

Durkheim was no doubt influenced by the society in which he lived. France was in a political crisis which led to a decline in its national unity by 1871 and by 1880 France began to rebuild its national identity by promoting scientific development and stressing the importance of anti-individualism.

A political scandal known as the Dreyfus affair divided the Third French Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. This was when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was a French artillery officer of Jewish descent, was wrongly convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison. The conviction was eventually annulled but this divided French society by drawing attention to the individual and calling national unity into question.

The social upheaval and lack of national direction arising from the Dreyfus affair led Durkheim to take a strong anti-individualist stance as he believed the idea that the individual was separate to society threatened the cohesion of social institutions and consequently negatively impacted society.

[bellab]

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[elb]

Thank you, this was very helpful. Clear voice and strong points.

[ceciliagrant]

Thank you for this concise explanation.