The ‘Individual’ in the Writings of Émile Durkheim

Abstract

It is argued that there is a reciprocal relationship between Durkheim's substantive discussion of the development of individualism and his abstract formulations of sociological methods. Durkheim is often regarded as being fervently "anti-individualist". But in fact, his works contain a vigorous defence of individualism—understood in a specific way. In other words, Durkheim's writings represent an attempt to detach "liberal individualism", regarded as a conception of the characteristics of the modern social order, from "methodological individualism".