Sociology

Sociology

Sociology

Introduction

Sociology can easily be described as an untidy subject. As the "science of society and social relations' its boundaries are wide and difficult to draw. Marx, Durkheim and Weber are the major classical sociological thinkers and are often regarded as the "trinity' of major classical sociologists. They provide theories and arguments in order to create an understanding of our society. In comparing and contrasting these sociologists it is acceptable to analyse Marx and Durkheim as they offer a challenging examination of the dehumanising aspects of industrial society. To come to a conclusion Weber will be related back to the latter thinkers as the features of his teaching is immensely present and important in sociological disputes and debates.

Discussion

Both Marx and Durkheim's criticisms are rooted in the development in the specialised functions and the complex division of labour. They offer valuable critiques in which they do propose solutions from opposing perspectives. Marx's theory is often referred to as alienation, "An individual's feelings of estrangement from a situation, group or culture' (Collins Dictionary of sociology...p.13) and Durkheim's theory as anomie, this literally means "without norms.....A condition of society [.....]', (ibid. p.22).

According to Marx, the division of labour alienates man from his work, from himself, from nature and from his fellow men. He views alienation as a process. Man works to produce products that he does not own and it thus alienated from his labour. As specialisation increases, he no longer experiences the self-confirming features of his work but experiences it as debilitating. As he becomes alienated from his work and himself, work becomes a means to an end. For example subsistence and man becomes divorced from nature. His fellow men are experiencing alienation too and eventually each man thinks only of himself and his family and becomes alienated from other men. Man experiences life as dehumanising which affects society as a whole. It becomes an interesting idea as Marx only seems to concentrate so much upon alienation rather than inequality. In the second edition to "Alienation' by Bertell Ollman, what Marx states is "what we must explain.....separate of these inorganic conditions of human existence.....in relation between wage - labour and capital" (Marx's emphasis) (p.133). Marx believed this situation to endemic in the capitalist division of labour which organises labour exploitatively. He believed that gradually the workers would recognise their shared experience of alienation and its cause in the capitalist relations of production and world revolt to overthrow the system.

Durkheim did not view the situation as one of the ultimate conflict. In his chapter he seems to bear this out in one level at least, "The problem of the development of division of labour in society [.....]', in that he refers to it as "a law of nature, also a rule of human conduct [.....]', (The division of labour, p.9) He believed that the complex division of labour with its specialisation of function is the normal state of society and important as a basis of social solidarity. In this book, he introduced the notion of ...