Durkheim, Émile (dûrk`hīm, Fr. āmēl` dürkĕm`), 1858–1917, French sociologist. Along with Max Weber Weber, Max (mäks vā`bər), 1864–1920, German sociologist, economist, and political scientist.
..... Click the link for more information. he is considered one of the chief founders of modern sociology. Educated in France and Germany, Durkheim taught social science at the Univ. of Bordeaux and the Sorbonne. His view that the methods of natural science can be applied to the study of society was influenced by the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte Comte, Auguste (ōgüst` kôNt)
..... Click the link for more information. . Durkheim held that the collective mind of society was the source of religion and morality and that the common values developed in society, particularly in primitive societies, are the cohesive bonds of social order. In more complex societies, he suggests, the division of labor division of labor, in economics, the specialization of the functions and roles involved in production. Division of labor is closely tied with the standardization of production, the introduction and perfection of machinery, and the development of large-scale industry.
..... Click the link for more information. makes for cohesiveness, but the loss of commonly held values leads to social instability and disorientation of the individual. Durkheim studied suicide to show the importance of anomie, the loss of morale that accompanies decline in social identity. To support his theories he drew extensively on anthropological and statistical materials. His important works include The Division of Labor in Society (1893, tr. 1933), The Rules of Sociological Method (1895, tr. 1938), Le Suicide (1897), and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912, tr. 1915).

Bibliography

See biography by S. Lukes (1985); studies by S. Lukes (1972), R. A. Nisbet (1965 and 1974), N. Smelser (1963), and D. La Capra (1985).

Durkheim, Émile

(born April 15, 1858, Épinal, France—died Nov. 15, 1917, Paris) French social scientist. He developed a vigorous methodology combining empirical research with sociological theory and is widely regarded as the founder of the French school of sociology. Durkheim was greatly influenced by philosopher Auguste Comte, and his sociological reflections, never remote from the moral philosophy he was schooled in, were first expressed in The Division of Labour in Society (1893) and Suicide (1897). In his view, ethical and social structures were endangered by technology and mechanization. The division of labour produced alienation among workers, and the increased prosperity of the late 19th century generated greed and passions that threatened the equilibrium of society. Durkheim drew attention to anomie, or social disconnectedness, and studied suicide as a decision to renounce life. Following the Dreyfus Affair, he came to regard education and religion as the most potent means of reforming humanity and molding new social institutions. His The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) is an anthropological study—centring largely on totemism—of the origins and functions of religion, which Durkheim saw as expressing the collective conscience of a society and producing social solidarity. He also wrote influential works on sociological method. He taught at the Universities of Bordeaux (1887–1902) and Paris (1902–17). See also Marcel Mauss.