DURKHEIM, É MILE DURKHEIM, É MILE (1858 – 1917), known generally as France's first sociologist, was far more than that. David É mile Durkheim was also a historian and theorist of pedagogy, moral education, and morals; a student of traditional societies, ritual life, and the world's religions; an active agent of social reform and religious change in his own milieu; a writer of patic ...