Marx Historical Context
Classical sociological and economic theories like those of Karl Marx emerged in Western Europe when it was experiencing the Enlightenment, the emergence of scientific method, a growing sense of individual autonomy over one's life conditions, the emergence of private property, urban growth, and a total shattering of the social balance of relations among peoples that had been in place for centuries if not millennia. Christianity and other traditional religions were being undermined by the new developments in science and technology, while urban, industrial capitalism was breaking up the old feudal-agrarian order in Europe and the Americas. All the founders of modern sociology had to deal with this radically new society, and attempted to describe its historical origins, the new social and economic problems of industrial capitalism, and how governments and societies should deal with them. Karl Marx received his PhD in economics in Germany during the dawn of industrialization and the factory system. He predicted that the socialist revolutions would occur first in the advanced Western nations like Britain, France and the U.S., and belied that the 1848 revolutions were harbingers of these. When they failed he exiled from Germany, however, and spent the rest of his life in England.
In classical Marxist theory, changes in technology, transportation and communications led to the rise of the capitalist class or bourgeoisie, which first began to take political power in Europe and the Northern United States in the 17th and 18th Centuries. As certain regions of these countries became urbanized and industrialized, a new working class or proletariat began to emerge among the displaced and landless peasants who flocked to the cities in search of work. In the 19th Century, the hours of work in the new factories were very long and "the wages earned by laborers left families on the brink of beggary," while living conditions in cities like Manchester were hell on earth.[footnoteRef:1] For Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, then, the three main classes of society were workers, capitalists...
Sociological Theory Sociology as a field of study entails examining and understanding the behavior of human groups and associated social behavior. In understanding these aspects, the sociologists have, their focus primarily concentrated on the human interactions. These human interactions revolve around how the different social relations influence the behavior and attitudes of the people and how the societies originate, form and change. Human interactions are vast, and so is the field
He also created his own vocabulary, and proposed a model that was radically different. He branded his views as being from an entirely different school of economics from "classical" economics. Before Marx, there was essentially only one view of economics, with thought progressing in a relatively straight line. Marx introduced the notion of entirely new ideology. The result is that since then economics is no longer viewed as a
His main contribution to conflict criminology was his emphasis on the behavior of authorities. He maintained a pessimistic approach, which regarded capitalism as merely trying to remain flexible in the face of conflict. In Weber's opinion, people would prefer to give rather than receive orders. Their main interest was prestige. Conflict was inherent in competition for scarce resources (Elwell). Among Weber's major works were "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit
In other words, he changes, and for Marx, the capitalist cannot change until forced to do so, specifically by the revolution he and Engels call for in the Communist Manifesto. Marx sees the economic development of history as a matter of class struggle, following the dialectic of Hegel as opposing forces fight and through that revolution produce a synthesis, or a new social order. Dickens sees change as possible
Geology was one of the sources of Marx's views about social system and it's structure (the idea of formation). Among the biological discoveries that influenced on Marx's sociological views were the discovery of cell, cell theory of the organism's structure and the most important was evolutionary teaching of Darwin that was stated in work "The origins of species." Marx saw biological analogue of his theories in Darwin's work and
Gift giving creates a bond between the giver and the receiver. Mauss felt that to reject a gift, was to reject the social bond attached to it. Likewise, to fail to reciprocate is viewed as a dishonorable act in some cultures. Gift giving is a means to create social cohesion among the group. What Distinctive contributions did Weber make to social theory? Weber used his work to attempt to understand the
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