Paul Fauconnet (March 13, 1874 in
Saint-Denis – 1938) was a French
sociologist who is best known as a contributor to the ''
L'Année Sociologique''.
Biography
Fauconnet
aggregated in philosophy in 1892 and earned his doctorate in
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
in 1895. He also earned a further doctorate in
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
in 1920, although his interest in the law was purely scholarly and he never practiced as a lawyer. He became a professor at the faculty of letters in 1907 at the
University of Toulouse
The University of Toulouse (, ) is a community of universities and establishments ( ComUE) based in Toulouse, France. Originally it was established in 1229, making it one of the earliest universities to emerge in Europe. Suppressed during the ...
and later chargé de cours (
lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...
) at the faculty of letters in 1921 in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, obtaining a chair in 1932. His dissertation was entitled ''La responsabilité: Etude de sociologie'' (Paris: Alcan, 1920; 2nd edn 1928). It adopts and develops
Emile Durkheim
Emile or Émile may refer to:
* Émile (novel) (1827), autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
* Emile, Canadian film made in 2003 by Carl Bessai
* '' Emile: or, On Education'' (1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a treatise o ...
's teachings on the nature of criminal justice and punishment.
Durkheim's definition of sociology as "the science of institutions, of their genesis and functioning" was derived from Fauconnet's contribution on sociology, coauthored with
Marcel Mauss
Marcel Israël Mauss (; 10 May 1872 – 10 February 1950) was a French sociologist and anthropologist known as the "father of French ethnology". The nephew of Émile Durkheim, Mauss, in his academic work, crossed the boundaries between sociolo ...
, to ''
La Grande Encyclopédie
''La Grande Encyclopédie, inventaire raisonné des sciences, des lettres, et des arts'' (''The Great Encyclopedia: a systematic inventory of science, letters, and the arts'') is a 31-volume encyclopedia published in France from 1886 to 1902 by H. ...
'' in 1901.
References
External links
Book ''La Responsabilité. Etude de Sociologie''free to download.
free to download (Les classiques des sciences sociales)
Further reference
* Roger Cotterrell, ''Emile Durkheim: Law in a Moral Domain'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press / Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999) pp. 106–109.
1874 births
1938 deaths
French sociologists
Academic staff of the University of Toulouse
{{France-sociologist-stub