Social theorists, writers and philosophers of almost every time period have examined the convoluted relationship between social relations and individuals including Karl Marx and Georg Simmel. While some have taken the approach that individuals are shaped by their social world, others insist that the social world itself is what shapes individuals. There are a few theories that exist with regards to the connection between individuals and society which will be discussed throughout this short essay in order to fully explain the relationship between individuals and society.
Starting off with the conflict theory by Karl Marx, he was primarily focused on the structures of society. The conflict theory is one of the fundamental ideologies that explains social life as a battle between social groups for power and scarce resources. It tends to explicitly explain social life in the most accurate way possible as it clarifies the inequalities of money, gender, class, and age while displaying how members of privileged groups maintain advantages while subordinate groups struggle. The ruling class known as the bourgeoisie is made up of those who own property and the means of production. The lower class, who Marx called the proletariat consists of those who don’t own property or mans of production. The proletariat are exploited by bourgeoisie to …show more content…
Simmel focused a lot of his analysis on how human behaviour can be mainly understood based on the social group to which the individual belongs to and the kind of restrictions they challenge in specific forms of interaction. As individuals within society are continuously involving themselves in different groups and interacting with different individuals, they create social structures and these structures have an effect on the personality of the individuals. Individuals become deliberately oriented to one
Starting off with the conflict theory by Karl Marx, he was primarily focused on the structures of society. The conflict theory is one of the fundamental ideologies that explains social life as a battle between social groups for power and scarce resources. It tends to explicitly explain social life in the most accurate way possible as it clarifies the inequalities of money, gender, class, and age while displaying how members of privileged groups maintain advantages while subordinate groups struggle. The ruling class known as the bourgeoisie is made up of those who own property and the means of production. The lower class, who Marx called the proletariat consists of those who don’t own property or mans of production. The proletariat are exploited by bourgeoisie to …show more content…
Simmel focused a lot of his analysis on how human behaviour can be mainly understood based on the social group to which the individual belongs to and the kind of restrictions they challenge in specific forms of interaction. As individuals within society are continuously involving themselves in different groups and interacting with different individuals, they create social structures and these structures have an effect on the personality of the individuals. Individuals become deliberately oriented to one