ABSTRACT
The importance of Emile Durkheim's work for the development of sociology cannot be over-estimated, but it is necessary to be quite clear wherein his importance lies. Durkheim did not abandon evolutionary sociology; on the contrary it was his original aim to establish the laws of social evolution. Durkheim presented statistical evidence to show that there is a higher suicide rate among married people without children than among those who are married and have children; and that it is higher among single, divorced and widowed people than among married people. In the essay Durkheim again expressed his anti-reductionist view, for he argued that there is a hierarchy of values in a society which cannot be reduced to the values of individuals; it is in a sense independent of individual members of society. Durkheim argued that the reality is in fact the social group itself.
