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Emile Durkheim Quotes

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About Emile Durkheim

Emile Durkheim (April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917) was a French sociologist and philosopher whose work laid the foundation for modern social science. Born in Epinal, France, Durkheim spent his early years immersed in Jewish tradition while also showing an early aptitude for academic pursuit. Durkheim studied at the École Normale Supérieure, where he developed a passion for history and philosophy. Influenced by Auguste Comte's positivism and John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism, Durkheim sought to apply scientific methods to the study of society. He was deeply affected by the premature death of his brother, Henri, an event that may have shaped his views on social cohesion and anomie (normless states). In 1887, Durkheim became a professor at Bordeaux University, where he conducted some of his most influential research. His first major work, "Suicide" (1897), examined the rate of suicide among various religions and occupations, arguing that social factors, such as integration and regulation, were more significant than individual psychological states in explaining this phenomenon. Durkheim's magnum opus, "The Division of Labor in Society" (1893), is considered one of the cornerstones of sociology. In it, he posited that the degree of division of labor determines the level of social solidarity within a society. His final significant work, "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life" (1912), explored the social functions of religion and its role in creating collective consciousness. In 1896, Durkheim moved to the Sorbonne in Paris, where he continued his influential teaching and research until his death. His ideas, particularly his focus on the collective aspects of society, remain central to contemporary sociological thought. Emile Durkheim's enduring legacy as the "father of modern sociology" continues to inspire scholars worldwide.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Society is a total fact."

Emile Durkheim's statement, "Society is a total fact," suggests that society cannot be reduced to its individual parts alone; it exists as a complex whole that shapes and influences the behaviors and actions of individuals within it. In other words, society is more than just a collection of individuals; it has an independent existence and exerts a powerful influence on its members through social norms, customs, institutions, and collective consciousness. Understanding this "total fact" of society helps us grasp how human behavior and social phenomena are intricately linked.

"Individual and collective tendencies are not opposed in their nature, but rather in their domain."

This quote by Emile Durkheim suggests that individual and collective inclinations do not possess inherently opposing natures; instead, they operate within distinct realms. While individuals have personal desires and aspirations, societies as a whole embody shared values, norms, and customs. Understanding this interplay between the individual and the collective is essential in studying society and human behavior.

"The division of labor is fundamental to all human societies."

Emile Durkheim's quote emphasizes the significance of specialization and division of labor in the functioning of all human societies. Essentially, he suggests that every society relies on a system where individuals have specific roles and tasks, allowing for efficiency, productivity, and societal development. This division enables interdependence among members, fostering cooperation and the overall advancement of the community. In essence, Durkheim highlights the importance of a well-organized social structure that drives progress in human societies.

"Religious life arises out of the secular."

This quote by Emile Durkheim suggests that religious beliefs, practices, and institutions do not exist in isolation but have roots in the everyday experiences, values, and social norms of a given society – the "secular" realm. In other words, religious life is a product, a refinement, or a spiritualization of the social and moral realities people encounter in their day-to-day lives. For Durkheim, religion serves to consolidate and reinforce social cohesion, providing a collective framework for understanding the world and regulating human behavior.

"Moral rules are the expression of the collectivity's view of what is necessary for its own survival and well-being."

This quote by Emile Durkheim suggests that moral rules, which govern societal behavior, reflect the collective wisdom of a society about what actions are essential for its preservation and prosperity. In essence, these rules serve as guidelines to ensure the survival and well-being of the community. As such, they embody shared values and norms that define acceptable conduct within a given society, playing a crucial role in maintaining social order and cohesion.

Each victim of suicide gives his act a personal stamp which expresses his temperament, the special conditions in which he is involved, and which, consequently, cannot be explained by the social and general causes of the phenomenon.

- Emile Durkheim

Suicide, Social, Which, Expresses

A person is not merely a single subject distinguished from all the others. It is especially a being to which is attributed a relative autonomy in relation to the environment with which it is most immediately in contact.

- Emile Durkheim

Which, Attributed, Subject, Autonomy

To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.

- Emile Durkheim

Unattainable, Pursue, Which, Perpetual

Whoever makes an attempt on a man's life, on a man's liberty, on a man's honour inspires us with a feeling of horror in every way analogous to that which the believer experiences when he sees his idol profaned.

- Emile Durkheim

Horror, Which, Honour, Believer

By definition, sacred beings are separated beings. That which characterizes them is that there is a break of continuity between them and the profane beings.

- Emile Durkheim

Break, Which, Profane, Continuity

The individual can maintain himself in a society definitely organized only through possessing an equally definite mental and moral constitution. This is what the neuropath lacks. His state of disturbance causes him to be constantly taken by surprise by circumstances.

- Emile Durkheim

Through, Disturbance, Possessing

Sadness does not inhere in things; it does not reach us from the world and through mere contemplation of the world. It is a product of our own thought. We create it out of whole cloth.

- Emile Durkheim

Thought, Product, Through, Contemplation

The human person, whose definition serves as the touchstone according to which good must be distinguished from evil, is considered as sacred, in what one might call the ritual sense of the word. It has something of that transcendental majesty which the churches of all times have given to their Gods.

- Emile Durkheim

Gods, Considered, According, Churches

One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it. In vain, one bestows on it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature.

- Emile Durkheim

Nature, Increasingly, Remain, Emptiness

A society whose members are united by the fact that they think in the same way in regard to the sacred world and its relations with the profane world, and by the fact that they translate these common ideas into common practices, is what is called a Church. In all history, we do not find a single religion without a Church.

- Emile Durkheim

Church, Fact, United, Practices

There is a collective as well as an individual humor inclining peoples to sadness or cheerfulness, making them see things in bright or somber lights. In fact, only society can pass a collective opinion on the value of human life; for this the individual is incompetent.

- Emile Durkheim

Fact, Bright, Cheerfulness, Lights

Religious phenomena are naturally arranged in two fundamental categories: beliefs and rites. The first are states of opinion, and consist in representations; the second are determined modes of action.

- Emile Durkheim

Two, Religious, Modes, Categories

The roles of art, morality, religion, political faith, science itself are not to repair organic exhaustion nor to provide sound functioning of the organs. All this supraphysical life is built and expanded not because of the demands of the cosmic environment but because of the demands of the social environment.

- Emile Durkheim

Repair, Sound, Roles, Organic

A monomaniac is a sick person whose mentality is perfectly healthy in all respects but one; he has a single flaw, clearly localized. At times, for example, he has an unreasonable and absurd desire to drink or steal or use abusive language; but all his other acts and all his other thoughts are strictly correct.

- Emile Durkheim

Other, Perfectly, Correct, Respects

The liberal professions, and in a wider sense the well-to-do classes, are certainly those with the liveliest taste for knowledge and the most active intellectual life.

- Emile Durkheim

Wider, Certainly, Classes, Well-To-Do

From the physical point of view, a man is nothing more than a system of cells, or from the mental point of view, than a system of representations; in either case, he differs only in degree from animals.

- Emile Durkheim

Point Of View, Nothing, More, Case

Each new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is circular.

- Emile Durkheim

Generation, New, Successor, Order

Man seeks to learn, and man kills himself because of the loss of cohesion in his religious society; he does not kill himself because of his learning. It is certainly not the learning he acquires that disorganizes religion; but the desire for knowledge wakens because religion becomes disorganized.

- Emile Durkheim

Desire, Religious, Certainly, Seeks

Men have been obliged to make for themselves a notion of what religion is, long before the science of religions started its methodical comparisons.

- Emile Durkheim

Been, Before, Obliged, Methodical

It is inadmissible that systems of ideas like religions, which have held so considerable a place in history, and to which, in all times, men have come to receive the energy which they must have to live, should be made up of a tissue of illusions.

- Emile Durkheim

Like, Which, Receive, Illusions

That men have an interest in knowing the world which surrounds them, and consequently that their reflection should have been applied to it at an early date, is something that everyone will readily admit.

- Emile Durkheim

Date, Been, Which, Early

The Christian conceives of his abode on Earth in no more delightful colors than the Jainist sectarian. He sees in it only a time of sad trial; he also thinks that his true country is not of this world.

- Emile Durkheim

Country, More, Abode, Delightful

If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.

- Emile Durkheim

Society, Idea, Given, Essential

Our whole social environment seems to us to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds.

- Emile Durkheim

Own, Social, Which, Forces

Faith is not uprooted by dialectic proof; it must already be deeply shaken by other causes to be unable to withstand the shock of argument.

- Emile Durkheim

Argument, Other, Uprooted, Proof

The fundamental proposition of the apriorist theory is that knowledge is made up of two sorts of elements, which cannot be reduced into one another, and which are like two distinct layers superimposed one upon the other.

- Emile Durkheim

Other, Like, Which, Proposition

Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned.

- Emile Durkheim

Comparison, Imaginations, Therefore

Religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities.

- Emile Durkheim

Express, Religious, Which, Collective

It is science, and not religion, which has taught men that things are complex and difficult to understand.

- Emile Durkheim

Science, Taught, Which, Complex

It is too great comfort which turns a man against himself. Life is most readily renounced at the time and among the classes where it is least harsh.

- Emile Durkheim

Against, Which, Readily, Turns

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