He was elected membership of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1898 and in 1912 to the Académie française.

Émile Boutroux was born at Montrouge,[2] now in the Hauts-de-Seine département, near Paris.

He then continued his education at Heidelberg University between 1869 and 1870 where he was taught by Hermann von Helmholtz and encountered German philosophy.

In 1888 Boutroux was made professor of history of modern philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris.

He was elected a member of Academy of the Moral and Political Sciences in 1898 and in 1902 he became Director of the Thiers Foundation, a residency for France's brightest students.