Theorist of Choice - Research Paper Example

Western philosophical ideologies and knowledge constitute the origin of social analysis. Emile Durkheim is known to have established the official scholastic sociology and positivism as to be the basis of practical-social study. Western philosophical ideologies and knowledge constitute the origin of social analysis (Ashley & Orestein, 2005). Marx’s Contributions and Personal Opinions I concur with Karl Marx’s theoretical approach to sociology. He, unlike other philosophers, did not only use philosophy to interpret the world but also wanted it to change.

He can be considered as the true father of modern socialism, communism and sociology as a whole. I believe social setup and democracy are rooted upon conflicts emanating from the society. This is the same notion that projects Marx’s perspective on conflict theory on sociology. In his argument, he indicated that, with time, the oppressors will be stripped of their power. Through their effort, the oppressed will be granted their rights. Thus, social change will be realized. Constituents of the society must work coherently and in harmony, in order to attain the perfect functional society.

Karl Marx viewed norms and institutions to exist as one organ working coherently and in harmony towards attaining the correct function of the wider society. I believe that determinism, conversely, tends to oppose free will just as Karl Marx indicates that every action is facilitated by a preceding one. In reference to Karl Marx and his influence on sociological perspective, I establish four sociological deductions i.e. determinism, conflict theory, functionalism, and action theory. According to conflict theory, as deduced by Marx, there exist a clear cut between radical and conservative theories, both of which are derived from functionalism.

The former acts an alternative to the later. Karl Marx deduced that, in any given society, two major social set ups coexist. These social groups are the ruling class and the subject class. The ruling group draws its supremacy through ownership and management of production forces. The theory goes that the subject class is exploited and oppressed by the ruling class. This results to a disagreement between the two communal classes. The ruling class uses various frameworks of society such as law and politics as its instruments to demonstrate thus furthering its stake.

In this context, Marx observed that western societies were established on grounds of primitive socialist, capitalistic communities and feudal and prehistoric social order. It is evident that social change relies upon the presence of conflict; this is further determined by economic change. Seemingly, for economic change to come about there must be a difference, cutting clear between evolved classes, the capitalist and the working class. The capitalist were in control of wealth thus generating sources, whereas, laborers were infringed by being exploited by the capitalists.

The process, then, applies from micro to macro levels such as from dynamics of a family to national social set up. According to him, prehistoric societies represent primitive communisms thus are only illustrations of classless communities. Progressively, the rest of the societies from then onwards are categorized into two main classes, class of masters and that of slaves, as referred to in ancient societies, the class of lords and serfs in a typical feudal society. The capitalists and low wage laborers as brought out in the in