He founded the first sociological journal, " L'Année sociologique ." He taught the first course in Sociology and Pedagogy. He defined the first method of study and research for analyzing society. He published the first empirical sociological research. Born in Épinal in 1858, Émile Durkheim was instrumental, along with Max Weber , Georg Simmel , Auguste Comte , and Ferdinand Tönnies , in founding and institutionalizing sociology as an empirical science in its own right, separate from psychology, to which it had previously belonged. Driven by great curiosity, Durkheim questioned society, what held its members together, and the origins of social phenomena, firmly believing in sociological knowledge as a means of improving collective life.
The importance of social facts
To give depth and relevance to sociology, previously considered unimportant, Durkheim focused heavily on social structures , their role in society, and on demonstrating the influence they exert on individual actors, thus validating the discipline of sociology and achieving scientific recognition. For Durkheim, the object of study of sociology was therefore " social facts ," which, for the French sociologist, " consist of ways of acting, thinking, and feeling external to the individual, yet endowed with a coercive power by virtue of which they impose themselves on him, with or without his consent ." They prevail over individuals and simultaneously permeate them, as if they had their own existence and independence.
“ When I fulfill the role of brother, husband, or citizen, I fulfill duties that are defined outside of me and by my actions, in law and custom. The system of signs I use to express myself, the monetary system I employ to pay my debts, function independently of the use I make of them .”
These are therefore social phenomena that cannot be explained by analyzing multiple individual and psychological cases, but are the result of human interactions and can only be explained by starting from society. In a climate of strong positivism like that of the nineteenth century, for Durkheim, if sociology wanted to consider itself equal to the other sciences and study its subjects objectively, it had to adopt the same method and scientific rigor. A holistic view was needed , that is, analyzing phenomena not individually but as parts of a whole, just as occurs in the biological study of a living organism. Furthermore, social facts had to be explained casually through observation free from all prejudices and subjective preconceptions, and considered, as he himself stated, " as if they were things ."
Suicide as a social phenomenon
His work “Suicide”, published in 1897, represents the first social research based on a empirical methodThe theme is quite strong but also provocative. Suicide is in fact also a social phenomenon and precisely through this topic considered in the common sense so "personal" and "psychological", Durkheim aimed to demonstrate the importance of sociology by providing a social explanation. The French author initially refuted all the versions of his time regarding the possible extra-social causes of suicide. Collecting, processing, and comparing the statistical data on suicides provided to him by the authorities in different countries, he arrived after various attempts at the detection of a positive correlation with thesocial integration. They are the social integration of the individual and the internal cohesion of society the social factors determining the occurrence of suicides. The intuition came from observing how the practitioners of Protestant religion were more inclined to suicide precisely because the peculiar characteristics of their faith provided less integration and social cohesion to their practitioners.
Types of suicide
In his work, Durkheim distinguishes three different types of suicide based on social integration.
Selfish suicideThis is the type of suicide described in the Protestant religion. It refers to a lack of social integration. It is particularly widespread in societies characterized by a high degree of individualism.
Altruistic suicide: on the contrary, it occurs with excessive social integration. It is typical of an individual's sacrifice for his country in war.
Anomic suicide. Instead, it concerns the condition of "anomie," from the Greek 'a-' (without) and 'nomos' (norm). A strange effect Durkheiem notes concerns the increase in suicides both in periods of great prosperity and in those of economic depression. According to the author, this is due to the absence of shared norms and values with which society holds its members accountable. It is a society's inability to ensure adherence and integration into a single order for the individuals who belong to it and therefore to regulate their needs and give meaning to their existence.
Today, several schools, institutes, and even streets around the world are named after the Frenchman. But Émile Durkheim is not only the father of sociology; he represents for all an example of tenacity, courage, and resourcefulness: the characteristics that distinguish the great scholars who have shaped history.
Valerio Adolini
