Marx, Durkhiem and Weber had a distinctive perception of the development of society from pre-modern to modernity, the problems

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Student number. 0465802/1          Assignment number. SOB 2019  

Marx, Durkhiem and Weber had a distinctive perception of the development of society from pre-modern to modernity, the problems that would be faced and their predictions as to the future. Outline and evaluate these differing perspectives.

1,495 words.  1,521 inc. references.            

Sociological perspective has benefited from Marx, Durkhiem and Weber’s theories, regarding human nature and the development of their societies. Each one had their differing characteristics. Marx saw class conflict and Capitalism central to his theory, whereas Durkhiem concentrated on Industrialism and the division of labour and Weber rationalization and bureaucracy. Marx had three major features in his analysis, mainly how goods and services are organized; the conflicts which arise and how it motivates change from one system to another. Although Auguste Comte established sociology and some of the original disciplines Emile Durkhiem is responsible for turning the subject into a more academic discipline. One of Durkhiems main principles was to consider ‘facts as things’ and his ‘Organismic analogy’ idea maintains that societies are like living organisms. He believed that the only way one can analyze the complete picture, is to look at all the parts and its contribution. Weber became known for the social action within sociology, or interpretive sociology, and believed that as individuals we are capable of very meaningful actions which go a long way to define our choices and future. He places less importance on external forces and statistical data, but rather the meanings attributed to social actors which he called ‘Verstehen’. Sociology in Focus. Pg 657-667.

Weber{1864-1920} emphasized the effects of external and constraining social facts on individual behaviour, and believed that to understand the meanings of others and their own behaviour one had to adopt the view of a social actor. Although statistical correlations were important between social facts one also needed to grasp the level of meaning of human action. Weber began investigation with social events but this proved difficult as he was concerned with events which had passed; mainly the origins of modern capitalism. Therefore he adopted the method of Verstehen, this is translated as ‘empathic understanding’ this perspective imagined how the world would have looked from the actors point of view’ contrary to one’s own. Weber constructed an ideal type of categories for generalization to help us make sense of our observations, not one type fits exactly but it helps as a guideline in identifying one form of bureaucracy from another organization. He included this list of six ideal characteristics and the concept of vertehen in his four fold categorizations of types of action. Weber continued this argument and believed that modern societies were succumbing to more rationalization. Along with this idea he believed that disenchantment was apparent and was partly due to secularization within society. Some criticism has been given to Weber’s concept of ideal types though as they are not always clear enough when he uses them to clarify types of action. Weber’s technique of interpreting the role of social actors has been criticized for exagerating the method of Verstehen to explain motives which are only interpretations that can not be proved that easily. As Weber believes so much in the individuals control over his destiny he ignores how much external forces can affect and limit behaviour. Sociology in Focus. Pg 665-667.

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 By the 1950s Functionalism had become the dominant theoretical perspective in sociology. Society is studied as a whole system and not just its individual parts, one part interdependent on the other. ‘Every part needs to be studied and understood by its contribution to the function of society as a whole’. At the root of Durkheims methodological principle was to ‘consider social facts as things’, he explained this concept by two characteristics firstly they must be external to the individual and also exercise constraint. One example of a ‘social fact’ was his suicide study. Although suicide is regarded as an ...

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