Kar Marx and Sociology - Essay Example

Inserts His/her Inserts Inserts Grade Inserts Here (Day, Month, Year) Sociology   Sociology is the study of the general public who are in persistent relation with each other. In sociology, sociological perspectives and theories are intricate models that help examine and clarify the substance of social study. Sociology is a continuously evolving science and it is far more different from the day it started. The research and other work in this science are not done by scientists but by sociologists who put forth their theories and perspectives to give a new path to this study. There are many people who excelled in it and all of them had different views regarding the humanity. One of the most popular sociologists of his time was Karl Marx. Like all he used the basic framework designed by the earlier sociologists. Karl examined each topic from micro to macro issues. To do this he used three perspectives; symbolic interaction, functionalism and conflict theory. These are the basic perspectives or paradigms used by all sociologists and of course Karl Marx to study different things in sociology. The symbolic interactionist perspective, also known as symbolic interactionism, directs sociologists to believe the symbols and details of daily life, what these symbols signify, and how people interact with each other. According to the symbolic interactionist perspective, people connect meanings to symbols, and then they take action according to their biased explanation of these symbols. Oral conversations, in which spoken words provide as the major symbols, make this subjective interpretation particularly apparent. The words have a sure importance for the “sender,” and, during successful communication, they optimistically have the same importance for the “receiver.” According to the functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, each feature of society is mutually dependent and adds to society's operation as a whole. The government, or state, gives education for the children of the family, which consecutively pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. That is, the family is reliant upon the school to help children develop to have good jobs so that they can rise and hold up their own families. In the process, the children turn out to be obedient, taxpaying citizens, who in turn hold up the state. If all goes well, the parts of society craft order, steadiness, and efficiency. If all does not go well, the parts of society then must acclimatize to recall a new order, stability, and productivity. For example, during a financial downturn with its high rates of unemployment and inflation, social programs are cut. Schools present fewer programs. Families constrict their budgets. And a new social order, stability, and productivity occur. Conflict perspective focuses on the unenthusiastic and conflicted nature of society. Contrasting functionalists, who preserve the status quo, shun social change, and suppose people cooperate to achieve social order, conflict theorists defy the status quo, cheer social change (even when this means social revolution). Conflict theorists, for example, may take a “privileged” board of regents raising instruction to pay for obscure new programs that increase the status of a local college as expedient rather than as beneficial for students. Karl Marx used this framework to give his perspective to highlight different topics in the society. Marx was very strict considering the class conflict. He was not satisfied with the way the capitalists treated the labor and being a conflict theorist he encouraged people to go against these capitalist ideas. He referred to the capitalists as Bourgeoisie and the masses of workers as Proletariat. Marx believed that the capitalists exploited the workers using their need to their advantage. As he said “It (the bourgeoisie) has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science into its paid wage laborers” (the two great hostile camps). He believed that the capitalists were dead labor which sucked the blood of live labor like vampires. He always sided with the proletariat and wanted them to get what they deserved for their hard work. Marx favored the idea of revolution which made him a conflict theorist. He always argued that the Bourgeoisie should respect the hard work done by the proletariat as without them they would be nothing. He also tried to unite the laborers against the capitalists but it was not possible as poor laborers needed jobs to earn their bread and the only ones who offered jobs were capitalists which gave them influence in the society. Marx thought that the capitalists used their influence in the society to illegally exploit poor laborers. He said that this led to disequilibrium in the society. Marx also believed that the capitalist economical system also led to alienation that is the loss of control on labor. As the capitalists paid very less wages to the workers they were not able to control them as they demanded for increased wages. Marx thought that it was their right but the capitalists didn’t. So to avoid alienation the capitalists started to buy machines which created unemployment and a great number of spare workers. This led the wages to fall further. The parents were not able to feed their children and this led to alienation and Marx encouraged it. As it is he said “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!"(The communist manifesto). Marx also believed that all this modernization today is due to the actions taken by the people in the history. Although no one in the past would have thought about the things happening today but still he believed that all this was related to the past. He supported the fact that the problems faced by the previous generations led to the advancements in technologies that we are now seeing. For example the traveling problems faced by the previous generations led to airplanes and cars being invented. As he said “Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.” (From the 18th brumaire of Louis Bonaparte). Marx in his theory of reification said that reification specifies the dialectical relationship between social existence and social consciousness. That is, between intentions based social relations and the subjective apprehension of those relations – in a society subjugated by commodity manufacture. It describes a state of lonely individual producers whose relation to one another is meandering and grasped only through the give and take of things (the circulation of commodities), such that the communal character of each producer's labor becomes hidden and human relationships are disguised behind the relations among things. In this way a particular (historical) set of social relations comes to be recognized with the natural properties of physical objects, thereby obtaining an appearance of naturalness or inevitability – a fact which contributes, in turn, to the imitation of existing social relations. Marx's concept of reification is a multi-dimensional concept: his scrutiny addresses both the nature of the social structure and the nature of social consciousness, as well as the reciprocal relations between these two levels. By contrast, as appropriated by mainstream sociology, the first of these dimensions (the social-structural dimension) disappears and reification, like alienation, is reduced to a psychological characteristic of the abstract individual. He also emphasized that an alteration of man’s being was necessary for one to attain social consciousness. He believed that the social being of a man determines his social consciousness. As said “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness." (From “a contribution to the critique of political economy.”). This shows the Marxian concept of social structure and consciousness. He thought that it was consciousness that depended on being. Marx thought that man and society depended a lot on each other in many ways and that their relation can never ever be underestimated by anyone. Marx also wrote about informal education. Karl Marx never wrote anything openly on education - yet his influence on writers, academics, scholars and educators who came after him has been deep. The power of his ideas has changed the way we look at the world. Whether you accept his analysis of society or whether you oppose it, he cannot be ignored. He thought that education leads to the well being of the society and without it the society will be in a social disequilibrium where no one will respect the ideas and innovation of one another. He respected those who were educated and he wanted the society to be in equilibrium. For example, society helps educate a child and in turn when he gets old the society benefits from the services he renders. Religion was also one of the topics that Marx pondered about. According to him, religion creates nothing but illusion for poor people that they will prosper in the hereafter as economic realities depress the people. Although he seemed to criticize religion but marx also supported it sometimes. He used to say that religion provides distressed people with solace and health also. Religion also gives one the satisfaction that his oppressor will be punished in the next life if not in this one. As he said “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness." (From critique of Hegel’s philosophy of right.). To sum up Karl Marx was a sociologist who changed the view of many people by outing forth his research and perspectives about different topics like labor, alienation, classes, reification and religion. He gave new ideas about social being and consciousness and religion that laid a new foundation for everyone to learn. Although not all of his perspectives were accepted by the people but he never changed them. He was resented much after the theory of religion but his other theories won him much popularity. People used to and will always be benefitting from his work in different areas of sociology. He also believed that no one should be deprived of his/her right and he also supported the idea of social equilibrium. Karl Marx did a lot of things in the field of sociology and gave everyone a new perspective. Works Cited Marx, Karl. "Karl Marx quotes." GoodReads. Karl Marx quotes, n.d. Web. 22 July 2011. Shagor, Himel. "Marx And Religion." The Brief Study. PDF file. Gimenez, Martha E. "THE POPULATION ISSUE." colorado. THE POPULATION ISSUE, n.d. Web. 22 July 2011. Marx, Karl."The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."Gutenberg. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, n.d. Web. 22 July 2011 Marx, Karl."A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right."Marxists. Works of Karl Marx 1843, n.d. Web. 22 July 201 Read More