Emile Durkheim

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Emile Durkheim

In the history of sociology, the numbers of famous sociologists who have existed have been high. They have ensured that the sociology field has improved until what it has become today. Many of them have ensured that their marks have been left on sociology. Sociologists study social human behavior, and specialize in matters such as organizations and origins among others. They seek to view the society as a whole, and at the same time, analyze social institutions (Vissing, 2011). Emile Durkheim came up with many accomplishments, which are still significant in today’s society. Durkheim is one of the most influential sociologists of all times. In fact, he is referred to as the first French man who became an academic sociologist. While attaining his academic career, he passionately and intensely advocated for matters concerning society. Despite the fact that sociology was not known much during his time, he defended it. It seems that he had a calling in the discipline of sociology, which he set to make known to the world. Durkheim experienced personal difficulties in an attempt to defend sociology.

Durkheim’s most famous theory is the one concerning sociology of knowledge, as well as that of religion. He believed that human beings tend to have religious commitments. This is due to commitments that people have and are of a social nature. According to the sociology of knowledge, human beings have unique thoughts. They often have various concepts regarding time and space, and this is viewed in the manner, which they live. Several classifications that are temporal, spatial and based on thought exist. Furthermore, he claims that they originated from societal issues (Vissing, 2011). This means that there were classifications, which were for objects and for men. In turn, the latter and the former belong to what is known as a kinship group. He argues that the social origins of scientific classification are being largely ignored. When people refer to others as belonging to their family, they are using the classificatory thought.

Durkheim wanted to find a logical explanation for human thought, based upon an explanation that is sociological. Moreover, he would use space and time, as his key concepts, which are created by society. For example, primitive societies also have social organizations, even though a developed world exists. This means that they existed on their own primitive model that has a spatial organization. Society has come up with years, months, weeks and days, and has corresponding recurrences. In another societal organization model, this refers to ceremonies, feasts and rites. These systems made man come up with a calendar, in order to know when certain activities take place (Thompson, 2002).

It is indeed clearly evident that Emile Durkheim is a distinguished sociologist whose theories are vital in the field of sociology. One of the reasons why I chose him is that his theory on sociology of knowledge is extremely informative. Society is aware about why people think in a certain way when compared to others. Secondly, Durkheim attempted to give an explanation of how society behaves regardless of the criticism that he encountered. Moreover, Durkheim was well educated and defended his theories passionately (Thompson, 2002). This is similar to what I believe in, and the reason why I chose Durkheim as a prominent sociologist. Indeed, Emile Durkheim made extremely valuable contributions to sociology.

References

Thompson, Kenneth (2002). Emile Durkheim 2nd Ed. New York: Routledge.

Vissing, Y. (2011). HYPERLINK “http://outboundsso.next.ecollege.com/default/launch.ed?ssoType=CDMS&redirectUrl=https://content.ashford.edu/ssologin?bookcode=AUSOC101.11.1” t “_new” Introduction to Sociology. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education