Karl Marx Vs Durkheim Essay

Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim were both important figures in the creation of sociology. Karl Marx created the Conflict Theory and wrote The Communist Manifesto. There are some key ideas for Marx’s theory. He argued that everything is about class conflict. The bourgeoisie, or capitalists, were the class that paid the proletariat, or workers, and often took advantage of them. He claimed that the proletariat all experienced a thing called the false consciousness, where they didn’t realize how exploited they were being by the bourgeoisie. Marx believed this would lead to conflict during a process called the dialectic. The dialectic is a cycle where there the present state of affairs (thesis) holds an opposing group within it (the antithesis), that eventually leads a conflict resulting in a new status quo (a …show more content…
He created the Structural-Functional Theory and wrote The Division of Labour in Society and Suicide. Durkheim’s theory states that social structures determine what behaviors people have and that social structures perform some function for the survival of the society. There are also some key ideas related to the Structural-Functional Theory. The first is social facts. These are common behavior practices that limit people’s behavior that originate in the society. Social facts relate to his theory because they are behaviors bestowed by society, that oftentimes serve some type of function. Another key idea is mechanical solidarity versus organic solidarity. Both describe how communities are bonded in different types of societies. Mechanical solidarity is how communities in rural areas where everyone had the same jobs and ideals stay together. Organic solidarity is how communities in urban areas where people had different jobs due to the division of labor stay connected. This relates to Durkheim’s theory because the structure of these communities both have the function of remaining connected, despite their