ABSTRACT
The upbringing David Emile Durkheim received stressed the sense of duty and responsibility and imparted to him the meaning of effort. He learned Hebrew, made his bar-mitzvah, participated regularly in Sabbath day and holy days celebrations, and familiarised himself with the Pentateuch and the Talmud. Durkheim seemed very pessimistic with regard to the evolution of his society and also felt the need to act, something which politics would enable him to do. Durkheim began teaching a new course in 1894–1895. Durkheim undertook a vast empirical study with the support of his nephew Marcel Mauss and, with no prior expertise, began handling social statistics. In it Durkheim published his essay entitled "La prohibition de l'inceste et ses origines". At the Sorbonne, Durkheim intended to continue teaching about the questions of morality and moral education that remained at the heart of his preoccupations. Gabriel Tarde has traditionally been presented as the principal advocate of individualistic resistance to Durkheimian "sociologism".
