Karl Marxism Vs Conservatism

Karl Marx is considered to be many things. He was the first real critical theorist, meaning he took upon what other theorists had already learned and built around it; he did not disregard what had already been found, but instead critiqued society by trying to develop a comprehensive theory based on history. Marx carefully considered many ideas and theories as he devised his critiques. This was rather different from sociological theories that came before, which sought to simply understand and explain society. He had ties to both Conservatism and Liberalism, although often leaning more towards the liberal side.
Conservative Thought Tocqueville and Burke were the first of the conservative intellectuals to influence the direction of sociology. …show more content…
He sees the importance of modernity, as it promotes interdependency and a new stage in human development, the capitalist era. However, in despite some agreement with Conservative beliefs he also critiques and questions it. For example, although the Bourgeoisie are a big point to make (Marx gives them credit for the near total erasure of feudalism), Marx believes they are also unscrupulous, manipulative, greedy, and that they appropriate the desires of the masses to their interests. In controlling the means of production, the working man or woman (proletariat) are both marginalized and alienated from their work. As such, he is against aristocracy and the inheritance of land, and supports a strong regulating body to ensure societal …show more content…
Locke, for example, believed that “the state of nature” is one of equality, given by the providence of god’s creation and reason. This gives us “morality,” a notion of right and wrong, as he believed that the state of society proved that humans are not reasonable. In addition, Locke developed social contract theory whereby societal interaction is made up of predetermined agreements between its members. People had the ability to enforce equality by either accepting or denying the terms of a given society. This is to say, if by virtue of being part of the social contract you’re worse off than not being in society at all, then abandon it. The nature of society is what grounds the notion of sociology.
Kant’s “Notion of Critique” is also an important part to the Liberalism idea. Kant became the first modern proponent not only of social theory, but of social criticism – not simply describing and explaining what is, or predicting what will be, but arguing for what ought to be; this is a critical perspective. He emphasizes the distinction between freethinking and disobedience – one is still obliged to obey within ones formally defined roles. Yet, even those who obey are supposed to be free to offer criticism of tradition and the extant order. Such freethinking should serve to direct society as it