Historical context of Durkheim's sociology • Political instability of the Fren ch republic in the late 19th century: rising working-class militancy; threat of right-wing coup to reassert the power of the military, church, and aristocracy. Struggle for control over education between church and secular forces. Search for political stability preoccupies middle-class intellectuals like Durkheim. • Durkheim was instrumental in establishing sociology as a discipline; became the first chair of sociology and established the first sociology jour nal. Much of his writing was preoccupied with emphasizing the value of the new discipline of sociology as compared with more established disciplines like economics, psychology, or philosophy. General features of Durkheim's sociology • Positivism: treats the natural sciences as the mode l for the social scie nces; goal of sociology is objective study of "social facts." Positivism distinguishes sociology from philosophy. ...