Karl Marx's Theory Of Sociological Analysis

Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Karl Weber are considered to be the principal "founding fathers" of the field of sociology. The following investigation, first of all, offers an overview of the beliefs and methodologies of each of these sociologists, discussing how they interact and how they affected each other. This discussion will show that there is a gradual evolution in his development of sociology that goes from the macrocosm to the microcosm, that is, first focusing on society overall and then more specifically on the individual. Karl Marx (1818-1883) was chiefly concerned as a philosopher with the plight of the working class, not only with the working class obtaining its material needs, but also in regards to how human beings develop their "essential human powers" and enjoy "free activity" (Honderich, et al 1995: 524). According to Marx, society is comprised of a perpetually changing balance of "antithetical forces," which serve to generate social change through their interactive tension and conflicts (Cosner 1999: Marx). Marx's basic viewpoint is based on the idea that struggle, rather than peaceful growth, is the impetus for progress, as individuals compete with each other in order to wrestle the means for survival from nature (Cosner 1999: Marx). As this suggests, historical specificity is a principal characteristic to Mark's approach for understanding society. For instance, when Marx postulates that all prior historical eras were characterized by classic struggles, he immediately interjects the stipulation that these struggles differed within each historical stage (Cosner 1999: Marx). In contrast to his predecessors, who saw the struggles between rich and poor, powerless and powerful, as remaining essentially the same from one era to the next, Marx contended that the nature of the contenders in such struggles had changed over the course of time (Cosner 1999: Marx). Departing from both Comte and Hegel, Marx argued that it was not the evolution of the human spirit or ideas that propelled development, but rather how humanity met the need for material conditions (Cosner 1999: Marx). However, it was from Hegel, …show more content…
Therefore, Durkheim conceived of sociology as a distinct science. He posited that what societies see as "normal" is relative to the stage of development of that particular society and that the absence of social norms, or conflict between existing social norms produces "anomie," that is, a "moral lawlessness" (Honderich, et al 1995: …show more content…
As this suggests, Durkheim saw society as being external to the individual, but also something that was internalized by the individual. With this perspective, Durkheim began to study social facts not simply as information that was "out there" in the world of material objects, but also as data that the social scientists can evaluate and understand. However, Cosner notes that Durkheim was primarily concerned with the characteristics of groups and structures than he was with individual attributes (1999: Durkheim). For example, in his studies of religion, he focused on whether or not there was cohesion within the group rather than on specific individual traits of religious believers (Cosner 1999: Durkheim). In so doing, he demonstrates that such group properties exist independently of individual traits and should therefore be studied in their own right (Cosner 1999: Durkheim). Additionally, Durkheim investigated differing rates of specific behavior within populations. For instance, he determined that a "significant increase of suicide rates in a particular group indicates that the social cohesion in that group has been weakened and its members are no longer sufficiently