FOUNDING FATHERS

OF SOCIOLOGY
- By Ram Chandra Shrestha
For The Purpose Of Teaching BBA IIIrd Sem.
EMILE DURKHEIM (1858-1917)
 Emile Durkheim : Brief Biography
• Born on 15 April 1858, in a Jewish family at Epinal in the eastern French province of Lorraine
• studied Hebrew, the Old Testament, and the Talmud at an early age
• In spite of relegious background remained an agnostic throughout the life
• had bright student career in the College at Epinal
• graduated from famous college of Paris "Ecole Normale"
• between 1882 and 1887 taught philosophy in a number of provincial schools in Paris and
surrounding
• went Germany for education purpose, where he was exposed to the scientific psychology
being pioneered by Wilhelm Wundt
• after returning from Germany focused on publishing several articles
• these publications earned him a prominent place in the department of philosophy at
University of Bordeaux in 1887
 Emile Durkheim : Brief Biography contd...
• became head of the newly created department of "Social Science"
• In 1893 he published French doctoral thesis "The Division of Labour in Society"
• Series of prominent works were published:
The Rules of Sociological Method, 1895
Suicide, 1897
Collective and Individual Representation, 1899
Judgements of Reality and Judgements of Value, 1911
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, 1912
• In 1902,he was invited to the famous French University, the Sorbonne
• In 1906, he was named the professor of the science of education and changed in 1913 to professor
of the science of education and sociology
• actively concerned with French politics throughout his life and was respected as a political liberalist
• died in15 November 1917
 Contribution of Durkheim to
the Development of Sociology
• Although the term sociology had been coined some years earlier by Auguste Comte, there was no field
of sociology per se in late-19th century universities.There were no schools, departments, or even
professors of sociology. There were a few thinkers who were dealing with ideas that were in one way of
another sociological, but there was as yet no disciplinary "home" for sociology. Indeed, there was strong
opposition from exiting disciplines to the founding of such a field. The most significant opposition came
from psychology and philosophy. (p. 126, Sociological Theory, Geroge Ritzer and Jeffrey N Stepnisky,
10th edition)
• To seperate sociology from psychology, Durkheim argued that sociology should be concerned
with the study of social facts, phenomena irreducible to individual psychology.
• To seperate sociology from philosophy, Durkheim argued that it should be oriented toward
empirical research.
• In order to help sociology move away from psychology and philosophy and to give it a clear and
separate identity, he proposed the distinctive subject matter of sociology should be the study of social facts.
 Theory of Social Facts
• According to Durkheim, Sociology is the science of social facts
Definition:
"A social fact is a phase of behavior (thinking, feeling or acting) which is subjective to
the observer and which has a coercive nature." (E.S. Bogardus,The development of social
thought")
— For example, students are constrained by such social structures as the university
bureaucracy as well as the norms and values of society

Social Facts: objective, collective forces that constrain the ways of acting, thinking,
and feeling in society; can be studied objectively and with objectivity.
 Theory of Social Facts contd...
Nature of Social Facts:
i) Social facts must be regarded as "things" and studied empirically
—We must study social facts by acquiring data from outside of our own minds through
observation and experimentation
— Social facts are not reducible to individual facts as like in psychological analysis
 Theory of Social Facts contd...
Nature of Social Facts:
ii) Social facts are external to the individuals and exercise a constraint on them
a) There is heterogeneity of individual and collective states of mind. For example, the intensity
of collective feeling of patriotism is much greater than that of any individual feeling.
b) There is uniformities of social statistics. Many types of social facts like crimes, marriages,
suicides show a surprising degree of numerical consistency from year to year
a and b verified how social facts are external to the inviduals
Social facts have a constraining effect on individuals like moral laws, legal rules, penal system.,
fashion, institutions of education etc
 "Theory of Division of Labour" as Contribution of
Durkheim to the Development of Sociology
• The division of Labour in Society has been called sociology's first classic.
• In this work, Durkheim traced the development of the modern relation between individual and society.

Division of Labour:
i) In the sense of the technical division of labour: production process
ii) as the sexual division of labour: social divisions between men and women
iii) as the social division of labour: differentiation of society as a whole

The relationship between individual and society is expressed in terms of division of labour.

The thesis of The Division of Labour is that modern society is not held together by the similarities
between people who do basically similar things. Instead, it is the division of labour itself that pulls
people together by forcing them to be dependent on each other. (Ritzer and Stepnisky, ibid,
138)
 "Theory of Division of Labour" as Contribution of
Durkheim to the Development of Sociology
• Durkheim categorized 'mechanical solidarity' and 'organic solidarity' to discussed how
division of labour is responsible in social change.
• According to him, the primitive society is characterized by "mechanical solidarity" based on
the "conscience collective"; and the advanced society is characterized by "organic
solidarity" based on the "division of labour".
• The division of labour was a material social fact to Durkheim because it is a pattern of
interactions in the social world. He believed that the cause of the transition from mechanical to
organic solidarity was dynamic density.The concept of dynamic density refers to the number
of people in a society and the amount of interaction that occurs between them.
 "Theory of Division of Labour" as Contribution of
Durkheim to the Development of Sociology
Traditional Society Modern Society

Pre-industrial/rural society Industrialized, urban society

Sameness Diversity

Strong Collective Conscience Weaker Collective Conscience

Limited division of Labour Highly Specialized Division of Labour

Produces Mechanical Solidarity Produces Organic Solidarity

 Contribution of Durkheim to
the Development of Sociology
• Durkheim has other several contributions to developing sociology as independent discipline.
• Durkheim studied suicide as outcome of social phenomena. His book "Suicide" is supposed as a
'landmark in which conceptual theory and empirical research are brought together' (Sociological
Thought, Abraham and Morgan, 114).
• Durkheim's book 'The Rules of Sociological Method, 1895' is one of the classics of sociology discipline.
• Durkheim's another book "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life- 1912" is supposed as the
application of fuctional approach. Indeed, this book has significant contribution to enhance functional
approach and 'sociology of religion'. In this book he discussed social role of most simple form of religion
called totemism of Australian Aborigines.
- The totem, denotes a common object such as an animal, or a plant, and a symbol representing that it is
sacred. From this fact Durkheim concluded that when people worship religion, they are really
worshipping nothing more than their own society. In this book Durkheim argued that, every society
needs a religion or at least some belief system that serves the same function.
 Durkheim Study of Suicide: As a Social Fact

•He did an empirical study of suicide rates in nineteenth-century Europe.

•According to Durkheim, Suicide is a social fact that varies across societal conditions and is a function of
social integration.
•Durkhiem argues that different societal contexts produce different conditions leading to suicide. He
categories suicide into three types:
•Altruistic suicide; characteristic of social contexts where the yoke of the collectivity is overpowering
•Egoistic suicide; characteristic of social contexts where excessive individualism dominates and there is a
paucity of social attachments
•`- Suicide under social conditions in which individuals are excessively self-oriented, and hence only very
loosely bound to other individuals and social groups
•Anomic suicide; emerges in conditions of societal upheaval, normlessness, rootlessness(Anomie is a French
word meaning the absence of norms or of the established standard; it refers to circumstances when the
normal pattern of social life is suddenly uprooted.)