MARX, WEBER AND CLASS

Marx, Weber and Class

Marx, Weber and Class

Discuss the notion of class in Marx in the light of max Weber's conceptualization of class and status groups. Which of the two positions do you find convincing and why?

Sociology can easily be described as an untidy subject. As the "˜science of civilization and social affairs its boundaries are extensive and tricky to draw. Marx, Durkheim and Weber are the major classical sociological thinkers and are often regarded as the "˜trinity' of major classical sociologists (Osberg, 1981, 65). “By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live.” (Karl Marx, 1820-1895)They provide theories and arguments in order to create an understanding of our society.

“The fundamental defect of ethics consists in the fact that it labels certain classes of acts 'sins' and others 'virtue' on grounds that have nothing to do with their social consequences (Marx, 1969, 120-133).”

In comparing and contrasting these sociologists it is acceptable to analyze Marx offers a challenging examination of the dehumanizing 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 (Grab, 1984)

Marx's criticisms are rooted in the development in the specialized functions and the complex division of labor. They offer valuable critiques in which they do propose solutions from opposing perspectives (Curtis, and William, 1979). Marx's theory is often referred to as alienation.

According to Marx, “the division of labor alienates man from his work, from himself, from nature and from his fellow men” (Lenski, 1966, 38). He views alienation as a process. Man works to produce products that he does not own and it thus alienated from his labor. As specialization increases, he no longer experience 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 (Clement, 1975). 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 dehumanizing 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 - labor and capital"(Marx's emphasis (Curtis, and William, 1979, 24). Marx believed this situation to endemic in the capitalist division of labor which organizes labor exploitatively. He believed that gradually the workers would recognize their shared experience of alienation and its cause in the capitalist relations of production ...