Emile Durkheim was a prominent French sociologist. He is also known as one of the founding fathers of modern sociology.

Emile Durkheim was born on 15 April 1858 into a Jewish family in Epinal, France. He remained a brilliant student throughout his academic career. He graduated from the well-known Ecole Normale in Paris and earned a degree in philosophy in 1882. From 1882 to 1887, he served as a teacher of philosophy in several schools in Paris.

In 1887, he married Louise Dreyfus and had two children, André and Marie.

His primary goal was to establish sociology as an independent academic discipline. Initially, sociology was not a separate field but part of history and economics. He argued that sociology is not a branch of any other science but is itself a distinct and independent science. Durkheim achieved his goal when the University of Bordeaux awarded him the world’s first academic appointment as a lecturer in sociology in 1887. He was later promoted to the rank of professor and made head of the department of social sciences at the same university. As part of his official duties, he worked on reforming the French school system and including social sciences in its curriculum.

In 1893, he published his doctoral thesis titled Division of Labor, which described the basis for social solidarity, integration, and order in modern society. He was deeply concerned about the problems of modernizing French society, such as moral degeneration. His theory of division of labor was an effort to reflect on the nature of social solidarity in different societies so that this knowledge could be applied to strengthen cohesive forces for the integration of modern society.

In 1895, Durkheim published The Rules of Sociological Method to describe what sociology is and what methods should be adopted to generate sociological knowledge. As part of his effort to establish sociology as an independent science, he emphasized the use of the scientific method to obtain valid sociological knowledge. His approach to studying society was purely scientific. He was inspired by the positivist approach of Auguste Comte. He argued that sociology is a science and should employ a scientific method for acquiring sociological knowledge.

In The Rules of Sociological Method, he also introduced the term social fact. The purpose of this term was to develop a common concept as a focus for all areas of sociology. According to Durkheim, social facts are factors or forces (external to the individual) that influence human beings to behave in certain ways. He defined sociology as the scientific study of social facts, believing that exploring these external factors would help in understanding human social behavior.

In 1897, Durkheim proposed his remarkable Theory of Suicide to explain various types of suicide with special reference to their social causes. It is one of his most influential works and contributed significantly to the field of sociology. The theory of suicide is also regarded as the first scientific study in the social sciences because it was based on systematic procedures of inquiry.

In 1902, Durkheim chaired the department of education at the Sorbonne University in Paris. From this position, he successfully included social sciences in the academic curriculum of Parisian institutions.

In 1906, he became the professor of the Science of Education. In 1913, he began chairing the department of Education and Sociology. He had a profound influence on his students and other sociology teachers.

In 1912, Durkheim published The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, his last written work. This was another major contribution addressing the problems of modernizing society, such as moral degeneration and social disintegration.

His son, André, died in combat during World War I in December 1915. This loss caused intense psychological trauma that affected Durkheim’s life deeply.

At the age of 59, he died of a heart stroke on 15 November 1917 in Paris. He was buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

Major Contributions of Emile Durkheim in Sociology:

• Division of Labour (Doctoral Thesis, 1893)
• The Rules of Sociological Method (1895)
• The Theory of Social Facts (1895)
• Theory of Suicide (1897)