comparative essay

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A Comparative analysis between Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx

Introduction

Emile Durkheim was a great sociologist who originated from France . He lived between the year 1858 and 1917 .To him the major role of any sociologists would be to give an account of the causes of all social phenomena and consequently explain what functions those social phenomena play in the society .It was his idea that society should never be explained with reference to individuals but it is the individual in any particular society

who should be explained based on the society . The reason behind this was that people 's behavior is in most cases dictated by a force if not an influence that can be traced back to either collective conscience on one hand or societal concern on the other . In his opinion any individuals action should never at any time be attributed to his /her personal characteristics .He argued that cumulative behavior gives rise to individual attributes .He went fourth to explain that the society determines individuals action . His study in division of labor and suicide demonstrates the magnitude of social cohesion that exists in European societies (Clark 36

Karl Marx was a chairman sociologist who lived between 1818 and 1883 His main interest was to understand all those major changes that were occurring in Europe during his time . His concern was to develop a society 's scientific theory . He came up with the theory that explained the operations and the changes in these societies which were capitalistic in nature . This is the theory of class conflict or what can be referred in other wards as Marxist theory of stratification (Blumenberg 2000

These two classical theories share a lot in common in terms of their theoretical perspectives . It should also be noted that despite these commonalities they also differ on other issues as far as their theoretical perspectives and explanations on social phenomena is concerned

This gives a brief outline of the theories of both classical sociologists (Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx ) and compares the theorists and their theories

Emile Durkheim

In his theory of suicide , Emile Durkheim identified four major types of suicides Altruistic , Egoistic , Anomie and Fatalistic . He explained that in those societies where there is too strong social integration there is a very high rate of suicide which is extrusive in nature .This is because in these societies individuals are forced to commit suicide for what they refer call collective good . They feel it is their duty to do so .The egoistic form of suicide mainly occurs in those societies where individuals are not integrated in their respective larger social units .They experience a sense of meaningless after realization of the impacts of the acts they commit and in to escape from being embarrassed or punished they end up committing suicide .The anomic suicide as Durkheim puts it is likely to occur in a society where regulation of power is disrupted .This disruption creates a norm less state as...