Emile Durkheim: Contributions to Sociology
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), one of the most important pioneers of sociology, was born of
Jewish parents in Epinal, France.
The first thing to be said about Emile Durkheim is that he
belongs to the second half of the nineteenth century; and it can be said that his ideas was formed
in the last quarter or the last third of the nineteenth century and were relevant to the historical
reality of Europe of the half of the twentieth century. He published the greater part of his work
by the outbreak of world war. I, analyzed that period of European history retrospective regarded
as a privileged age (la belle epoque), the least war like phase of the history of Europe.
The career of Emile Durkheim
Is an excellent illustration of the fertilizing power, a discipline acquires once it accumulates a
heritage of ideas, data and felt problems. He inherited Europe’s richest legally of social science,
the brilliant tradition of French sociology positivism and by his genuine capacity for empirical
research and a unique flair for conceptualization, he extended that legacy. He remained quite
independent in his own thought especially from the enlightenment philosophies. As a agnostic,
he was able to maintain a cool, defached analysis of religion, and being Jewish, he remained
deeply interested in the moral level of society, but without being committed to a particular
The significant influence over Durkheim’s nature intellectual level came from within distinctly
French intellectual traditions. The social conditions of France, his birth in the most rationalistic
region of France, his early exposure to the disaster of Farco-prcassian war and the consequent
uprising, his close identification with the strongly cohesive Jewish community etc, all
contributed towards shaping his idea. Between 1885 and 1886, Durkheim traveled and studied in
Germany. In 1982, he completed his French dissertation on “The Division of Labour in Society”
at the university fine scholar. In 1896, the first position in sociology in France was created for
1 For a concise biography of Emile Durkheim See. Robert Bierstedt, Emile Durkheim. (New York: Dell ,
1966) page 19-37.
2 See Raymond Aron (Introduction), “ Main Currents in Sociological Thought” II Duurkheim pareto and Weher
(Pengeeine Books Ltd: London , 1968).