Theories of Marx, Weber and Durkheim

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Theories of Marx, Weber and Durkheim

Alienation by Karl Marx

The modern sociological use of the concept of alienation developed mainly from the work of Karl Marx. In his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, written in 1844 and published in 1932, Marx explained alienation as the state that exists when things that should naturally go together are kept apart. The Industrial Revolution created workers who were alienated from their own essential humanity, because they were treated as "machines" as opposed to human beings. Further, they are alienated from one another because there is no social relationship involved in the production of a commodity. They are also alienated from the product they are producing, because it will be sold on the market with no relationship to the human that produced it, and from the act of work itself, because there is no satisfaction or meeting of desire involved. Preindustrial work did not have these attributes, as work was often performed in a family setting, with tangible results and, for many, a clear sense of pride and satisfaction. For Marx, and for many other philosophers of alienation, the farther society moves away from these more "natural" states, the more alienated we will become.

Marx's concept of alienation became better known in the 1950s, after Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts became better known in sociological circles. Many sociologists and Marxist writers were influenced by Marx's thoughts on alienation, including Fromm and Marcuse, who argued that alienation was tied to needs which capitalism artificially creates.

“Iron Cage” by Max Weber

Along with Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim, Weber is considered to be a key founding figure in the history of sociology. Weber provided one of the first major discussions of research methods in the social sciences, including issues such as objectivity and value neutrality. With his theory of action, he combined method with content by providing a framework for linking individuals to social systems. Weber was an early practitioner of the conflict perspective, especially in his pioneering work on the development of bureaucracy as a pervasive form of social organization. Weber argued that rationalization was becoming an increasingly powerful principle under industrial capitalism as cost, profit, and efficiency grew in social importance. The result, he believed, was an "iron cage" that would increasingly hold people's lives in its grip with little hope for escape or relief from its suffocating effects on the human ...