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From 1893 to the end of his life, the question of the individualism of modern societies has never ceased to haunt Durkheim. In his Book De la division du travail social, he realizes that the rise of individualism, by breaking down the structures of the traditional world, has led to a profound social crisis which he interprets above all as a moral crisis. From then on, he will seek to rethink the conditions of a renewed consensus adapted to the dynamics of modernity. In this study, we will show that Durkheim’s response to this crisis of modern societies was not univocal. If in 1893 he thought he could base social cohesion on the functional solidarity linked to the division of labor, it was a completely different model that he mobilized from 1898 and his famous text: L’individualisme et les intellectuels. It is the logic of these two models that this article seeks to highlight by showing that it is only from a reflection on the dual nature of modern individualism that Durkheim will find the basis of a new and genuine solidarity.