Célestin Charles Alfred Bouglé (1 June 1870 – 25 January 1940) was a French philosopher known for his role as one of

Émile Durkheim David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...

's collaborators and a member of the '' L'Année Sociologique''.

Life

Bouglé was born in

Saint-Brieuc Saint-Brieuc (, Breton: ''Sant-Brieg'' , Gallo: ''Saent-Berioec'') is a city in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. History Saint-Brieuc is named after a Welsh monk Brioc, who Christianised the region in the 6t ...

, Côtes-du-Nord. He entered the

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education sca ...

in 1890 and aggregated in philosophy in 1893. He was, along with Xavier Léon,

Élie Halévy Élie Halévy (6 September 1870 – 21 August 1937) was a French philosopher and historian who wrote studies of the British utilitarians, the book of essays ''Era of Tyrannies'', and a history of Britain from 1815 to 1914 that influenced Britis ...

Léon Brunschvicg Léon Brunschvicg (; 10 November 1869 – 18 January 1944) was a French Idealist philosopher. He co-founded the ''Revue de métaphysique et de morale'' with Xavier Leon and Élie Halévy in 1893. Life He was born into a Jewish family. Fro ...

and Dominique Parodi, one of the founding members of the journal ''

Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale The ''Revue de métaphysique et de morale'' is a French philosophy journal co-founded in 1893 by Léon Brunschvicg, Xavier Léon and Élie Halévy. The journal initially appeared six times a year, but since 1920 has been published quarterly. It ...

''. In 1896 he joined with Durkheim and became one of the first editors of the '' Année Sociologique''. He received his doctorate in 1899. After teaching in

, Montpellier, and

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. The city is on t ...

he took a position at the Sorbonne in 1908, the same year that ''Essay on the Caste System'' (his best-known work) appeared. He became the director of the École Normale Supérieure in 1935 until 1940. He died in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

in 1940.

Influence

Bouglé was one of French anthropologist

Louis Dumont Louis Charles Jean Dumont (11 August 1911 – 19 November 1998) was a French anthropologist. Dumont was born in Thessaloniki, in the Salonica Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. He taught at Oxford University during the 1950s, and was then dir ...

's foremost inspirations when it came to seeing Indian

castes Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...

(in the spirit of the ''Année Sociologique'') not just as elements making up a whole, but forming an ideological system (that of the Varnas, not the numerous Jatis) that in meaning and scope surpasses the sum of the elements.

Works

* ''Essais sur le régime des castes'' (''Essays on the caste system''; published in English as "Essays on the Caste System by Celestin Bougle" with a translation by D. F. Pocock in 1971 by Cambridge University Press) * ''Leçons de sociologie sur l’évolution des valeurs'' (Sociological lessons on the evolution of values, 1926; published in English as ''The Evolution of Values: Studies in Sociology with Special Applications to Teaching'')

External links

* * 1870 births 1940 deaths Writers from Saint-Brieuc École Normale Supérieure alumni French sociologists French male non-fiction writers {{france-philosopher-stub