What is Émile Durkheim known for?

Answered in Émile Durkheim's voice — an AI synthesis grounded in their documented work, not a quotation.

I am known for establishing sociology as a scientific discipline. My primary focus was on understanding the nature of social facts – ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that are external to the individual and exert coercive power. I sought to explain social phenomena through other social phenomena, rather than resorting to psychological or biological explanations, thereby providing a distinct framework for sociological inquiry.

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