...RESPONSE PAPER “Contributions made by KARL MARX, MAX WEBER and EMILE DURKHEIM to the research methodology used in social sciences” INTRODUCTION The paper mainly concerns the contributions of MARX, WEBER and DURKHEIM to the methodology in social sciences. The various methodologies in social sciences establish a connection with the societal implications which have a large impact over the society and its normative effects. Referring to the contributions by the following sociologists, all have a different and influential impact on the factors of society. The methodology of various sociologists reflects their attitude towards the society and its various customs and traditions. The following mentioned are the various methodologies adopted by sociologists in the field of social sciences. Marxist sociology emerged around late 19th/early 20th century, influenced by the thought of Karl Marx. Marx is seen as one of the most influential thinkers in early sociology, alongside thinkers such as Max Weber and Émile Durkheim. KARL MARX The theory propounded by Karl Marx is Marxism; in a nutshell it is the theory and practice of working-class emancipation. Marxism is also a method of looking at the world. One of the most important foundations of Marx's method was dialectical thought. Marx relied a lot on historical materialism and dialecticism to propound his theories in social science. Marx relied heavily on these two methods...
Words: 1776 - Pages: 8
...For Karl Marx, the stratification of social classes was the most significant source of societal conflict. Max Weber's definition of social class differs most notably from Marx's conception of the term in the sense that for Weber, social class and political class cannot simply be lumped together as a single entity. (Humanities) Weber viewed and defined social and political realms separately in an attempt to put emphasis on the unique dynamic that power possesses in its own right, apart from economic interests. Moreover, he wanted to highlight the irrational features of power by making it clear that the rational interests of a class are not sufficient to explain the dynamics of society, particularly when comparing one society to another. (Humanities). Marx has a much more optimistic view of conflict theory than Weber. Where Marx would say the proletariat have revolution as an ultimate recourse, Weber says we're screwed pretty much regardless. Marx does not consider inequality to be inevitable (not the natural product of human interaction, so man is not naturally flawed) and the major tenants of Marxism are towards a Better, more Just society (prescriptive goal of social science). Weber, on the other hand, distrusted human nature and saw inequality as inevitable. Our analysis of human interaction, in his opinion, should be value-free and non-prescriptive given such a nature In today's sociology, we tend to see the same three factors, although Marxist sociologists still emphasize...
Words: 526 - Pages: 3
...Classical Social Thought (SP 212) Semester 1, 2012-13 Lecturer: Tony Varley Room 309, Second Floor, Árus Moyola Office Hours: Monday: 5-6pm; Wednesday: 4-5pm. Email: tony.varley@nuigalway.ie Course Description: The classical sociological tradition has been heavily dominated by the writings of Marx, Weber and Durkheim. Each of these three theorists has carved out a distinctive approach to the study of society and, in the process, has contributed substantially to our understanding of the transition from pre-modern to modern society. There are many who would argue that the ideas of these three classical figures continue to have much to offer to an understanding of contemporary society and politics. There are several possible ways to study the ideas of Marx, Weber and Durkheim. In this course we will attempt to take a thematic and comparative approach by comparing the views of Marx, Weber and Durkheim on a number of central topics. We will look therefore at their ideas concerning the methods appropriate to the study of society, their views on class and the division of labour, on democratic politics and the state and on culture, religion and ideology. Our discussion will begin with a consideration of what a ‘classical’ tradition might look like in the social sciences; and of why Marx, Weber and Durkheim merit inclusion as the most significant members within such a tradition. For a fuller appreciation of the classical tradition in social theory there is no substitute...
Words: 2278 - Pages: 10
...Comparison and Contrast of Theories of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Émile Durkheim. While influence on modern social science can be traced to many revolutionary figures, perhaps none had greater influence on modern social science than three social theorists/sociologists, Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim who have been known as principle architects of modern social science. Although modern theory of sociology was founded by Max Webber and Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx has had a profound impact on the evolution of modern sociology. Each of the three figures contributed to sociology in many ways through different approaches to social class and inequality. Many might argue that there are similarities between these sociologists’ theories and that they examined ideas that were similar; however, they all came to different conclusions. Karl Marx was influenced by political economists who believed that the cost of production was determined by the amount of labor. Along with these and other influences, Karl Marx approached social problems and inequalities through his theory of alienation, which focuses on separation of things that naturally belong together. Marx’s theory further describes estrangement of individuals from their human nature as results a society divided into social classes. Karl Marx argued that class is decided by ownership or non-ownership of production. He also saw class as having connection to the means of production while Max weber’s idea of alienation is based on the concept...
Words: 504 - Pages: 3
...: Discuss the Contributions of Max Weber as a Founding Father of Sociology | Max Weber born as Karl Emil Maxmillian Webe (1864 – 1920); a German Sociologist, philosopher and political economist with ideas that influenced; social theory, social research and entire discipline of sociology. Weber as one of the three known founding fathers of Sociology is mostly cited with the other founding fathers; Karl Marx and Emil Durkheim in social field. Weber has been prominent in methodological antipositivism, where he argues the study of social action through interpretation of ideas. In his arguments, Weber sees the urge to look at ideas, especially the meanings put onto things and the role of changes of ideas that contribute to society and social changes. His main concern was to understand the processes of rationalization, secularization and disenchantment that he associated with the rise of capitalism and modernity; which resulted to a new way of thinking about the world. He used the German word “verstehen” to discuss deeper understanding of the meanings people put to things; a word that is still used in today’s sociology to analyze the important elements of culture and society. Weber was best known for his thesis combining economic sociology and the sociology of religion as explained in his book: “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” which he proposed that ascetic Protestanism was one of the major elective affinities associate with the rise in Western world of...
Words: 569 - Pages: 3
...JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY ARUSHA CAMPUS | DIPLOMA IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT – Y1S1 | INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY | | GRACE RUHINDA HD122-CO11-0247/2013 | 5/28/2014 | ASSIGNMENT 1: Discuss the Contributions of Max Weber as a Founding Father of Sociology | Max Weber born as Karl Emil Maxmillian Webe (1864 – 1920); a German Sociologist, philosopher and political economist with ideas that influenced; social theory, social research and entire discipline of sociology. Weber as one of the three known founding fathers of Sociology is mostly cited with the other founding fathers; Karl Marx and Emil Durkheim in social field. Weber has been prominent in methodological antipositivism, where he argues the study of social action through interpretation of ideas. In his arguments, Weber sees the urge to look at ideas, especially the meanings put onto things and the role of changes of ideas that contribute to society and social changes. His main concern was to understand the processes of rationalization, secularization and disenchantment that he associated with the rise of capitalism and modernity; which resulted to a new way of thinking about the world. He used the German word “verstehen” to discuss deeper understanding of the meanings people put to things; a word that is still used in today’s sociology to analyze the important elements of culture and society. Weber was best known for his thesis combining economic sociology and the sociology of religion as explained...
Words: 628 - Pages: 3
...According to the traditional definition, a class is usually defined as a group of people who occupy a similar position in the economic system. Based on this definition, sociologists suggest that there are currently three classes, which are upper class, middle and lower class. Besides the traditional definition of class, there are also different views on the actual definition of class. Karl Marx, a famous philosopher suggested a theory of class based on the premises that the ‘’history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.’’ According to him, there are two great classes, which are the owners and the workers. Owners or capitalists should have power over workers due to the fact that they paid waves to workers and could...
Words: 476 - Pages: 2
...universal vice the whole world subjects itself to and that is money. The money has become the root of all evils. Disease, famine, political infighting human rights abuses are all products as a result of lack of money, control of money, and the hoarding of money. In this paper, the extent to which money has corrupt human beings is analyzed. The paper will look at the reasons as to why the evils due to money issue arise and how they are related to alienation as expressed by Karl Marx in his paper-alienated labor. Marx became revolutionary figure because he came to sure that capitalism could not be reformed. At the end, capitalism could only create estrangement and alienation. As Marx describes, there is important connections between greed, private property, the separation of labor, monopoly, exchange and competition, capital and landed property, value and devaluation of man and competition. There is connection between the entire systems of estrangement and that of the money system. Karl Marx perspective Karl points to the common connection between money and the evil. He demonstrates in the consumerism, greed, and profiteering characteristic of capitalism. “Money, and all it symbolizes, is the root of all evils in a deeper”. Money if viewed from outside the system may be seen to do something insidious. It eliminates the very concepts of evil. On the other hand, it makes it impossible to discriminate evil and good. Money is shorthand means to say that capitalistic relations, trade...
Words: 1968 - Pages: 8
...or mass media. These institutions all form the social structure which is linked to the way in which a whole society is organised. Sociologists have advanced theories about how society works, this is due to the fact that it is a controversial issue where sociologists have different opinions and so different perspectives about how society works. Sociology involves looking at social trends and patterns of behavior e.g. different behavior’s in a classroom and different explanations for things. Within sociology, there are many different theories created by sociologists such as Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx, who all worked in the 19th / early 20th centuries. Emile Durkheim believed that sociology was a separate science from other subjects and should concern itself with the scientific study of social facts. Max Weber was concerned with studying sociology from the point of view of social actions. Karl Marx believed that everything that happens in society is as a result of economic relationships between people. Within sociology, there are 3 main areas that are recognised, social structures, social systems and social issues. Structures include the family and education, systems such as culture and identity and issues like crime and unemployment. There are 4 main theoretical areas within sociology; they are Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism...
Words: 502 - Pages: 3
...Five men in history, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim were known as the founding fathers of modern Sociology. Though from different time periods, their ideas and contributions reflected one another and showed great progression in Social Science. Auguste Comte was born in 1798 in France and had a significant part in the formation of sociology. Comte was the founder of French positivism and Comte can also be given credit for inventing or coining the term sociology. Herbert Spencer was born in 1820 in England and known as the second founder of sociology. Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer were two of sociology’s first great theorists. Both Comte and Spencer studied society and the many ways in which people in society interact. Both theorists agree on certain issues pertaining to society and social science, yet they completely differ on their views of the function of sociology. Spencer and Comte both realize that there is an order of co-existence in society. Society itself is made up of several components and parts which are subject to change and progress, thus altering society as a whole with these changes. With regards to the function of sociology, Comte believed that sociology was important due to the fact that it acted as a guide for people in order to make a better society. Comte saw evolution as very important and believed that every society went through three stages. These include; the theological stage, the abstract stage and the...
Words: 1184 - Pages: 5
...Critical Review: Understanding Sociology DIEU TRAN San Antonio College SOCI 1301 August 28, 2014 Chapter one of books always seem to be the most important one since it usually summarize what the book is about. Going through this chapter, I will discuss its 8 points: the purpose or main message of this chapter; the agreement about this chapter; the idea, concept, or theory that I think is the most important; the strength of this chapter; my feeling about the information from this chapter; the contribution that author make in this chapter; the future research; and the evaluation from a scale of 1 to 25. The main message of this chapter is about understanding sociology and how it works in the society. It is shown in the book by going through three main ideas: sociology, major sociology perspectives, and sociological imagination. Sociology is, as defined in the chapter, the scientific study of social behavior and human groups.” It’s similar to the way I’m thinking about sociology, which is the study about behavior of individual or groups in society and how society influences one’s behavior. I think the theory of sociological imagination is the most important out of the three ideas. A recently study has shown that “sociological imagination is an awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society.” (Mills, 2000, p.5) There’s an example about using sociological imagination to explain my observation about the overweight of half or more people in my...
Words: 597 - Pages: 3
...in order to identify the importance of the decisions from the perspective of sociology (option #3). To see my mother’s decisions in the viewpoint of sociology, I will apply Functionalism of Emile Durkheim, Marxism of Karl Marx, Interactionism of Max Weber and Feminism to the social factors that guided her decisions. As well, I will use five concepts to clarify the results of her decisions: manifest function and latent function, education, deprivation, religion,...
Words: 454 - Pages: 2
...12 | James Clerk Maxwell | the Electromagnetic Field | Presbyterian; Anglican; Baptist | 13 | Claude Bernard | the Founding of Modern Physiology | | 14 | Franz Boas | Modern Anthropology | Jewish | 15 | Werner Heisenberg | Quantum Theory | Lutheran | 16 | Linus Pauling | Twentieth-Century Chemistry | Lutheran | 17 | Rudolf Virchow | the Cell Doctrine | | 18 | Erwin Schrodinger | Wave Mechanics | Catholic | 19 | Ernest Rutherford | the Structure of the Atom | | 20 | Paul Dirac | Quantum Electrodynamics | | 21 | Andreas Vesalius | the New Anatomy | Catholic | 22 | Tycho Brahe | the New Astronomy | Lutheran | 23 | Comte de Buffon | l'Histoire Naturelle | | 24 | Ludwig Boltzmann | Thermodynamics | | 25 | Max Planck | the Quanta | Protestant | 26 | Marie Curie | Radioactivity | Catholic (lapsed) | 27 | William Herschel | the Discovery...
Words: 729 - Pages: 3
...Chapter 9 – Global Stratification Learning Objectives • Define social stratification and explain why it is sociologically significant. • Describe and provide examples of the four major systems of social stratification. • Discuss the relationship between gender and social stratification. • Describe the major points of disagreement between Karl Marx and Max Weber regarding the meaning of social class in industrialized societies. • As articulated by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, list the functions that social stratification provides for society. • Discuss Melvin Tumin's rebuttal to Davis and Moore's functionalist view of social stratification. • Explain the conflict perspective's view of social stratification as it relates to class conflict and scarce resources. • Evaluate Gerhard Lenski's attempt to synthesize the functionalist and conflict perspectives' views on social stratification. • Define ideology and understand how elite classes use it to maintain social stratification. • Compare the social stratification system in Great Britain and the former Soviet Union to the social stratification system in the United States. • Identify the major characteristics associated with the Most Industrialized Nations, Industrializing Nations, and Least Industrialized Nations. • Describe and evaluate the major theories pertaining to the origins of and maintenance of global stratification. Chapter Summary Social stratification...
Words: 1899 - Pages: 8
...Main sociological perspective *Structural Functionalism - the creation of the institutions in society that function to keep society going. Analogy to the human body.(Emile Durkheim) *Conflict Theory- groups with power in society will take care of their needs at the expense of others groups who struggle to get their fair share of societies resources.(Karl Marx/ Max Weber) *Symbolic Interactionism -The study of how information is transferred through human interactions. The issue for researchers studying social problems concerns how groups make their issues known. sociological cannon- the foundational works of a discipline. *Important to the study of social change during the transition from tradition to modernity. Karl Marx- class struggle Max Weber - bureaucracy, ideas causing social change Emile Durkheim- The function of institutions in society. Tradition=Modernity Rural= Urban Farm= Factory Monarchy= Democracy Religion= Science *The works of Marx, Weber and Durkheim replaced the early sociological works that focused on social control had been developed during time of european colonization. U.S Sociology - Social Problems Research Chicago School of Sociology 1900-1940 Examined the problems of cities that were caused by rapid industrialization, immigration, crime. -While social conditions were seen as contributions to problems, ultimately individuals were blamed for their failure to adapt. Structural Functionalism 1950’s- -Seen as a...
Words: 510 - Pages: 3
