涂尔干(1858～1917年)
Durkheim, émile
法国社会科学家，曾提出一套实验研究与社会学理论相结合的方法论，普遍推崇为社会学法国学派之父。先後受聘於波尔多大学和巴黎大学，熟谙多种外语。他很少外出旅行，而且从不作实地调查，他研究的大量资料都是由其他人类学者、旅行家或传教士蒐集和提供的。他所思考和撰写的，大多取自1870年代～1880年代目睹的重大事件，这些事件使他确信科学和技术的发展不一定必然导致进步，他察觉到周围弥漫着一片失范－－他後来对社会普遍不满现象的概括说法－－的氛围。他的社会学思想第一次发表於其博士论文《社会分工论》（1893）和另一部着作《论自杀》（1897）中。他认为，伦理和社会结构因技术和机械化的出现而受到威胁和损害，分工使工人们更加疏离而又彼此更加依赖，凡是个人能与他所归属的文化更紧密地结合在一起的地方，自杀情况显然较少。随着德雷福斯（A. Dreyfus）事件的发生，他越来越关心教育和宗教，认为这是改造人性最强有力的手段，也是塑造社会深层变革所要求的新制度、新风气的最有效的方法。他的《法兰西教育学的发展》一书在他死後出版（1938），是法国教育学中最有见识的着作之一。涂尔干晚年的另一重要着作是《宗教生活之初级形式》（1915），这是一部人类学着作，研究宗教的起源和作用，认为宗教是社会集体意识的表现，可以促进团结。亦请参阅Mauss, Marcel。
English version：
1858～1917年
Durkheim, émile
French social scientist who developed a vigorous methodology combining empirical research with sociological theory, and is widely regarded as the founder of the French school of sociology. His sociological reflections, never remote from the moral philosophy he was schooled in, were first expressed in The Division of Labor in Society (1893) and Suicide (1897). In his view, ethical and social structures were endangered by technology and mechanization. The division of labor produced alienation among workers, and the increased prosperity of the late 19th century generated greed and passions that threatened the equilibrium of society. Durkheim drew attention to anomie, or social disconnectedness, and studied suicide as a decision to renounce life. Following the Dreyfus affair, he came to regard education and religion as the most potent means of reforming humanity and molding new social institutions. His Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915) is an anthropological study of the origins and functions of religion, which Durkheim saw as expressing the collective conscience of a society and producing social solidarity. He also wrote influential works on sociological method. He taught at the Universities of Bordeaux (1887-1902) and Paris (1902-17). See also Marcel Mauss.