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Contributions Of Emile Durkheim

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Pioneer French sociologist Emile Durkheim was born on April 15, 1858 in Epinal, France. Coming from a family background whom were all “rabbis”, Durkheim was Jewish but decided to lead a secular life and ultimately led him along with his hard work to be admitted to École Normale Supérieure in 1879 (Carls). While attending the university, Durkheim studied Greek, Latin studies and philosophy with peers. Durkheim was unsatisfied with the course so rebelled because of his interest of “moral doctrines and scientific instruction” (Bancroft). This means that he was in search for a more social scientific outlook such as social ethics and sociology. Since there was no social science course at the time Durkheim was placed second to last in his graduating class in 1882 (Bancroft). In addition, since there was no available sociology course at the time; Durkheim with knowledge of philosophy decided to teach philosophy in the academic institutions of France. A leave of absence was given later to Durkheim for further study on social science and philosophy in Germany. With his German studies he also published reports on his German experiences and German academic life (Bancroft). Given the fact of Durkheim’s accomplished work, he was granted the opportunity to teach social science at the University of Bordeaux in 1887. Equally important, was the fact that Durkheim was able to reform the French school system by introducing the first sociology course. In the same year
Durkheim married his wife Louise Dreyfus and had two children Andre and Marie Durkheim. As Durkheim continued to persevere, he published and continued more important work such as The Division of Labor in Society in 1893, two years later published Rules of the Sociological Method and a year later founded the journal L'Année Sociologique( Bancroft). Besides the accomplishments Durkheim has made, he has also had complications along the way. For instance, Durkheim had two unsuccessful attempts to pass the entrance examinations for École Normale Supérieure, being placed at the bottom of the list of his graduating class, and World War 1 took the lives of pupils Durkheim had known and his own son and was not able to emotionally recover from his loss (Carls). He

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