Célestin Bouglé

Célestin Bouglé (1870 to 1940) was a French philosopher and sociologist and one of the closest collaborators of Émile Durkheim. Born in Saint-Brieuc, he trained at the École Normale Supérieure, helped found the Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, and in 1896 joined Durkheim as one of the first editors of the Année Sociologique, where he became known as the most original and independent of the Durkheimians. His Essays on the Caste System of 1908 treated Indian castes as a system of ideas about hierarchy, an approach later taken up by Louis Dumont, and his 1922 study of the evolution of values is often seen as his main work. He taught at Toulouse and the Sorbonne, founded the first French sociology research centre, the Centre de documentation sociale, and directed the École Normale Supérieure from 1935 until his death. He was also an active officer of the Human Rights League.