Emile Durkheim
French founder of sociology who studied social facts, suicide, and the division of labor to explain societal integration.
Most quoted
"A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them."
— from The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, 1912
"The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own. It can be termed the collective or common consciousness."
— from The Division of Labor in Society, 1893
"Religion is a system of ideas by means of which individuals imagine the society of which they are members and the obscure yet intimate relations which they have with it."
— from The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, 1912
All quotes by Emile Durkheim (101)
Organic solidarity is based on the differentiation of individuals.
The collective consciousness is the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society.
Sociology is not merely a science of observation, but a science of interpretation.
The individual is not free to choose his beliefs and practices; they are imposed upon him by society.
The more society develops, the more the individual becomes autonomous.
The sacred is that which is set apart and forbidden.
The profane is that which is common and ordinary.
Society is a moral being.
The individual is a product of society.
The function of crime is to affirm the collective consciousness.
The more developed a society is, the more complex its division of labor.
The individual is not an isolated being, but a social being.
Sociology is the science of institutions, of their genesis and of their functioning.
The individual is subject to social constraint.
The more society is differentiated, the more the individual is individualized.
Religion is a system of symbols and rituals that express and reinforce the collective sentiments of a group.
The individual is not a tabula rasa, but a being shaped by society.
The function of punishment is to maintain the collective consciousness.
The more society is integrated, the more stable it is.
The individual is not an isolated atom, but a part of a larger whole.
Contemporaries of Emile Durkheim
Other Sociologys born within 50 years of Emile Durkheim (1858–1917).