Hector Denis (economist)

Denis was initially trained as a lawyer but later changed his discipline to political economy and became a lecturer at the Free University of Brussels.

He resigned from the position of rector after the suspension the controversial anarchist Élisée Reclus who he had invited to give a lecture at the university.

[1][2] From the beginning of the 20th-century, Denis started to teach sociology at the university, inspired by the positivism of August Comte.

[2] In 1897, industrialist Ernest Solvay entrusted him with the task, together with Guillaume De Greef and Emile Vandervelde, to establish the Institute of Social Sciences, which the three socialists would lead until 1902.

Denis himself also decided to get involved in politics and was chosen from a cartel list of six socialists and five radical liberals in the district of Liège and would remain in the House until his death in May 1913.