Comparison Of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, And Max Weber

Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber were all pioneers in the area of sociology. Individually, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber contributed to the shaping of sociology as a field. Each had differing ideologies and concepts that ranged from mortality to society, to love, and so forth. All three theorists came up with concepts that applied to the societies that they lived in, and still apply to our current society. Within this essay, Marx’s idea of alienation and how it affects social classes will be discussed. As well as, Emile Durkheim’s perception on the idea of an individual and their identity and Max Weber’s weltanschauung on power. All three theorists as well had similar ideas and even referred to one another in some of their writings. Each

With his own concepts and his combined concepts with Engels, Marx was a large contributor not only to the field of sociology but to the economy and more. Karl Marx was an avid follower of Hegel’s philosophies. Being that Hegel was a well known philosopher in various parts of Europe, Marx took further interests in his ideas. Marx’s strides in the field of sociology is still impacting the field and even our current society. In Alienation and Social Classes, Marx explains that the lower class and wealthy are complete opposites. Marx continues on to explain that although the two are opposite, they are both results of the private property world. Marx says to question the position of either side, but to question them separately, because to question them as a whole would be unfair. “Private property as private property, as wealth, is compelled to preserve its own existence and thereby the existence of its opposite, the proletariat”. The lower class helps the wealthy exists, and the wealthy as well, aids in the lower class existing. “The proletariat, on the other hand is compelled to abolish itself and thereby its conditioning opposite—private property—which makes it proletariat.” (KM p. 133) The lower class as a whole according to Marx, is self destructive compare to the wealthy. Being self destructive is seen as a “negative” side of

Even so, the rich feel a sense of comfortability with alienation. Alienation is powerful on its own and shows human reality. Marx notes that within the opposition for both sides, each represent sides. The wealthy represent the conservative side, while the lower class represents the destructive side. Surprisingly when it comes to economic development, the wealthy tend to unconsciously sabotage themselves. Their own self sabotaging assists the lower class in a beneficial way. “When the proletariat wins victory, it by no means becomes the absolute side of society, for it wins victory only by abolishing itself and its opposite.” (KM p. 134) When the lower class wins, both the wealthy and lower class cease to exist. In Marx’s society, the “proletariats” are seen as gods. The proletariats are seen as practical people. Marx declares that the proletariats are “the completed abstraction from everything human; since all the living conditions of contemporary society have reached the acme of inhumanity in the living conditions of the