While he was expected to become a rabbi, he became the first sociologist: Who is Emile Durkheim?

Although the name of sociology was given by Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim is considered the founder of modern sociology.

Emile Durkheim was born on April 15, 1858, in Epinal-Loren, a small city in France, as the son of a Jewish Chief Rabbi. His full name is David Émile Durkheim. Since his father was a Jewish religious leader (chief rabbi), he wanted him to become a rabbi too. Emile Durkheim, who was a successful student at Louis Le Grand High School, entered the Ecole Normale Supérieure, one of France's elite teaching institutions, in 1879, after the death of his father. He graduated in 1882. He became interested in philosophy during his education.

Although the name sociology was given by Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim is considered one of the founders of sociology. French Sociology owes its strong influence at the end of the 19th century to his and the publication he founded, L'Année Sociologique.

David Émile Durkheim (15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, along with both Karl Marx and Max Weber.

Emile Durkheim was closely interested in social events and related reforms in France. At the Higher Teacher Training School, where philosophical and political issues were hotly discussed, his interest in social events did not go unnoticed by his schoolmates and teachers. Durkheim improved himself on social issues; However, since sociology education was not provided in secondary schools and universities at that time, he started his career as a philosophy teacher.

Emile Durkheim became a philosophy teacher in 1882 and taught philosophy in various French high schools. He went to Germany in 1885 to do research. He worked in many high schools here and conducted studies on social sciences and moral philosophy. He later reported his experiences in Germany. With the studies he extracted from his academic reports, Emile Durkheim was accepted as a promising figure for social sciences and social philosophy in 1887, when he was 29 years old.

One year after his return from Germany, he was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Bordeaux on July 20, 1887, by the decision of the ministry, to teach social science and pedagogy courses. He continued his studies here uninterruptedly and formed the foundations of sociology with these studies.

In 1887, Emile Durkheim married Louise Dreyfus. He and his wife Louise Dreyfus had two children, Andre and Maria. Not much is known about Durkheim's family life. However, it is stated in various sources that his wife was also devoted to Durkheim's work and helped him as a secretary, as well as creating a good, traditional Jewish family pattern.

Emile Durkheim wrote his book titled "The Social Division of Labor", published in 1893. The subject of this book is the relations between individuals and society, which is the main subject of Durkheim's sociology. In this book, Durkheim asks, "How can a collection of individuals form a society?" He tried to find an answer to the question.

Durkheim soon published his work "The Rules of Sociological Method". With this book, Durkheim made his real views known. Emile Durkheim gained his real fame with this book. In his research in this work, Durkheim stated that the origin of family, law, morality, and other institutions is in religion. His work titled “Primitive Forms of Religious Life” is the product of these studies.

Durkheim explained various social issues in his work "Rules of Sociological Method" and argued that the cause of a social event is a social event that occurred before. He expressed this idea in the work with the following words: “Social facts exist before the individual and continue outside the individual. They put pressure on individuals' movements and actions with their orders and prohibitions. In this respect, these do not occur individually among individuals and individuals must comply with them. "We comply with these only through education, which is a social institution," he said.

According to Durkheim, every social order is a reality that exists independently of the individuals who create it and continues regardless of the changes of individuals. Social institutions are patterns, and riverbeds; Children and young people are shaped in it and flow from there. Social forms use pressure and force to shape individuals in the way they want; While this pressure and compulsion can be felt very strongly on some issues and in some periods, sometimes it is so light that it is almost not felt at all. The powers of social institutions are especially evident when we deviate from the rules that apply within these institutions.

Durkheim, who knew several foreign languages, wrote criticisms of numerous texts in German, English, and Italian in the academic journal L'AnnéeSociologique, which he founded in 1896. He published the information he obtained from his ethics and sociology studies in the form of articles. He separated sociology from psychology and turned it into a positive science.

He taught social philosophy at the University of Bordeaux until 1902. In 1902, he was appointed to the Sorbonne University in Paris under Ferdinand Buisson and continued his studies there. However, only 4 years later, after the death of Ferdinand Buisson in 1906, he became a professor of pedagogy at Sorbonne University. This is not the first sociology chair in France; This chair is affiliated with the philosophy department. However, it was the first department where sociology education was given and it was named "Sociology Department" in 1913.

He took full responsibility for the rapidly developing French sociology in the 1900s. While Durkheim was trying to find his place in front of and within the developing social events and nationalist movements in France, this time he faced the test of World War I. The start of the war led to the death of his friend Jean Jeaurés before the crossroads. However, while he was trying to provide service to France with great devotion, he was accused of working for the Germans because he was Jewish. In addition to these accusations, Durkheim's only son, Andre, died in 1915 while he was fighting on the Balkan Front.

Durkheim, who was very saddened by the death of his son, passed away on November 15, 1917, in Fontainebleau, near Paris, at the age of 59.

The students of Durkheim, who was the most prominent founder of the school of sociology in France after Auguste Comte, continued his school with minor differences. Emile Durkheim left behind a school of research. Expanding the horizons of law, economics, linguistics, ethnology, art history, and historical research, Durkheim made sociology a basic branch of science.