Understanding Society Chapter 4 Introducing Western Sociologists

2. Alienation : It is a condition of self-estrangement. Consequently the worker is detached from the work. Alienation takes place in the broken relationship between workers and work.

3. Proletariat : These are the working class (i.e., labourers and peasants) people who sell their labour.

2. Ancient Mode of Production : It refers to a situation on enslavement of labour. Two classes that exist in medieval these stages are called masters and slaves.

3. Feudal Mode of Production : This is characterized by serfdom and found in feudal societies of the Western Europe.

4. Capitalist Mode of Production : This is characterized by wage earning and is found in capitalist societies.

5. Bourgeoise : These are those few who own the means of production in a capitalist society. They enjoy both economic and political power.

2. Dialetical Materialism : It refers to a situation of conflict in the process of production.

3. Historical Materialism : It refers to the development outcome of the material activity of man over nature which in turn determines other social institutions of man.

4. Class Antagonism : It refers to class opposition or struggle. According to Karl Marx, human history is characterised by the struggle between different social classes. Antagonism exists between the oppressor and the oppressed which polarises the two blocks i.e., Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.

1. The Division of Labour in Society.

2. The Rules of Sociological Method.

3. Suicide and

4. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

2. Sacred : The case or the most significant values of society or group is called sacred.

3. Profane : The considerations of mundane or day to day life.

2. Organic Solidarity : The solidarity that originates from people’s being different and interdependent. It prevails in modern as well as in complex societies.

3. Mechanical Solidarity : The solidarity that originates from people’s being similar or alike. It exists in simple societies.

2. Institutions : All the beliefs and modes of behaviour instituted by the collectivity, are called institutions.

2. Authority or domination implies a probability of obtaining willing obedience. Power is transformed into authority or domination when it gets legitimacy or willing obedience of the governed to the governors.

3. Ideal Type : An ideal type is a selection of certain elements, certain traits or characteristics which are distinctive and relevent to the phenomenon under study. In a way, it is an exaggerate picture of a particular reality. Idelal type is a mental construct.

(a) Charismatic authority is that authority (or domination) which is based on charismatic legitimacy.

(b) Charisma means ‘a gift of grace’. Charismatic legitimacy depend on devotion to the specific and exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person.

(c) Charismatic authority is based on the normative patterns prescribed by the individual possessing charisma.

(a) Historical materialism : It refers to the developmental outcome of the material activity of a man over nature which in turn determines other social institutions of man.

(b) Alienation : It is a condition of self-estrangement, consequently the worker is detached from the work. Alienation takes place in the broken relationship between workers and work (or the process of production).

(c) Class antagonism : It means class struggle. Class antagonism is the central theme of the writings of Karl Marx. He wrote, history of all the hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle. Antagonism exists between the oppressor and the oppressed which polarise the two blocks, i.e., the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.

1. Before and after the second world war in several countries dictatoship of proletariat was established but it failed. These countries have accepted that Marxism is outdated. They have accepted liberalism, free economy and globalisation.

2. For a lengthier period man cannot have only one class in his society. History is a witness. Since the days of Stone Age - inequality existed and will exist and if there is inequality in any form - physical, mental, economically, politically or religiously, there will be struggle, there will be different groups and there will be different classes.

1. During the late 17th and 18th centuries, Western Europe saw the emergence of radically new ways of thinking about the world. Referred to as ‘The Enlightenment’, these new philosophies established the human being at the centre of universe, and rational thought as the central features of the human being. The ability to think rationally and critically transformed the individual human being into both the producer and the user of all knowledge, the ‘knowing subject’.

2. On the other hand, only persons who could think and reason could be considered as fully human. Those who could not remain deficient as human beings and were considered as not fully evolved humans, as in the case of the natives of primitive societies or ‘savages’.

3. Being the handiwork of humans, society was amenable to rational analysis and thus comprehensible to other humans.

4. For reason to become the definite features of the human world, it was necessary to displace nature, religion and the divine acts of gods from the central position they had in earlier ways of understanding the world. This means that the Enlightenment was made possible by, and in turn helped to develop, attitudes of mind that we refer to today as secular, scientific and humanistic.

I. Mechanical Solidarity :
(a) Mechanical solidarity is founded on the similarity of its individual members and is found in societies with small populations. It typically involves a collection of different self-sufficient groups where each person within a particular group is engaged in similar acitivities of functions. As the solidarity or ties between people are based on similarity and personal relationships, such societies are not very tolerant of differences and any violation of the norms of the community attracts harsh punishment.

(b) In other words, mechanical solidarity based societies have repressive laws designed to prevent deviation from community norms. This was because the individual and the community were so tightly integrated that it was feared that any violation of codes of conduct result in the disintegration of the community.

II. Organic Solidarity :
(a) Organic solidarity characterises modern society and is based on the heterogeneity of its members. It is found in societies with large populations, where most social relationships necessarily have to be impersonal. Such a society is based on institutions, and each of its constituent groups or units is not self-sufficient but dependent on other units/groups for their survival. Interdependence is the essence of organic solidarity. It celebrates individuals and allows for their need to be different from each other, and recognises their multiple roles and organic ties.

(b) The laws of modern society are ‘restitutive’ in nature that in modern societies, the law aims to repair or correct the wrong that is done by a criminal act. By contrast, in primitive societies the law sought to punish wrong-doers and enforced a sort of collective revenge for their acts. Inmodern society the individual was given some autonomy, whereas in primitve societies the individual was totally submerged in the collectivity.

(b) The scientific understanding of society that Durkheim sought to develop was based on the recognition of moral facts. He wrote, ‘Moral facts are phenomena like others; they consist of rules of action recognizable by certain distinctive characteristics, it must then be possible to observe them, describe them, classify them and look for certain laws explaining them.

(ii) According to Emile Durkheim : The moral codes were the key characteristics of a society that determined the behaviour patterns of individuals. Coming from a religious family. Durkheim cherished the idea of developing a secular understanding of religion. It was in his last book. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life that he was finally able to fulfil this wish.

(iii) Social fact existed as moral community : Society was for Durkheim a social fact which existed as a moral community over and above the individual. The ties that bound people in groups were crucial to the existence of society. These ties or social solidarities exerted pressure on individuals to conform to the norms and expectations of the group. This constrained the individual’s behaviour pattern, limiting variation within a small range.

(iv) Moral conduct codes were manifestations of particular social conditions : Moral codes were manifestations of particular social conditions. Hence the morally appropriate for one society was inappropriate for another. So for Durkheim, the prevailing social conditions could be deduced from the moral codes. This made sociology akin to the natural sciences and was in keeping with his larger objective of establishing sociology as a rigorous scientific discipline.

(v) Due to the moral code, behaviour can be predicted : Construction of choice in social action meant that behaviour could now be predicted as it followed a pattern. So by observing behaviour patterns it was possible to identify the norms, codes and social solidarities which governed them. Thus, the existence of otherwise ‘in\ isible’ thinks like ideas, norms, values and so on could be empirically verified by studying the patterns of social behaviour of the people as they related to each other in a society.

(a) Within the bureaucracy officials have fixed areas of‘official jurisdiction’ governed by rules, laws and administrative regulations. The regular activities of the bureaucracy organisation are distributed in fixed way as official duties.

(b) Moreover, commands are issued by higher authorities for implementation by subordinates in a stable way, but the responsibilities of officials are strictly delimited by the authority available to them. As duties are to be fulfilled on a regular basis, only those who have the requisite qualifications to perform them are employed. Official positions in a bureaucracy are independent of the incumbent as they continue beyond the tenure of any occupant.

(ii) Hierarchical Ordering of Positions : Authority and office are placed on a graded hierarchy where the higher officials supervise the lower ones. This allows scope of appeal to a higher official in case of dissastisfaction with the decisions of lower officials.

(iii) Reliance on Written Document : The management of a bureaucreatic organisation is carrided out on the basis of written documents (the files) which are preserved as records. There is cumulation in the decision-making of the ‘bureau’ or office. It is also a part of the public domain which is separate from the private life of the officials.

(iv) Office Management : As office management is a specialised and modern activity it requires trained and skilled personnel to conduct operations.

(v) Conduct of Office : As official activity demands the full time attention of officials irrespective of her/his delimited hours in office, hence an official’s conduct in office is governed by exhaustive rules and regulations. These separate her/his public conduct from her/his behaviour in the private domain. Also since these rules and regulations have legal recognition, officials can be held accountable.

2. The central beliefs in any religion are related to the sacred and sharply distinguished from ‘the profane’.

3. The core or the most important values of society or group are considered sacred.

4. The considerations of mundane or day to day life are considered profane.

5. The sacred is that which is set apart, considered holy and venerated or dreaded and avoided. The sacred includes religious beliefs and rites, deities or anything, which is socially defined as requiring special religious treatment. The sacred is generally in a higher position, valued more than profane things. Its identity and power are sacred by social rules.

6. Participation in the sacred order such as rituals or ceremonies gives a special prestige. But one has to prepare oneself through rites to participate in the sacred order.

7. The profane order on the other hand, relates to the mundane, ordinary and utilitarian aspect of day-to-day existence.

8. The sacred thing is par excellence what the profane not touch and cannot touch with impurity.

1. It means labour will be distributed among the different individuals having different skills of specializations.

2. Division of labour became popular in modern and complex societies after the Industrial Revolution.

3. With the increase of division of labour in modern societies, individuals are more than ever functionally connected by their mutual needs.

4. Due to this process, every labour (usually) is specialised, individuals become more dependent on others to perform separate economic functions, which they are not able to carry out themselves

1. Along with Karl Marx and Max Weber, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim is one of the key classical theorists in Sociology. He is best known for founding Sociology as a scientific discipline and for defining the boundaries of its subject matter.

2. Emile Durkheim was the author of some of the most programmatic statements about what sociology was and how it should be done. Emile Durkheim’s key theoretical statement lies in his claim that social phenomena are realities that can only be explained by other social facts.

2. Emile Durkheim’s second concern was the issue of social solidarity or integration in society. He inquired into (a) the sources and natural of moral authority as an integrating force in society (b) as well as the rise of individualism in society. Finally, Emile Durkheim held a strong interest in the practical implications of social scientific knowledge.

1. Social facts according to Emile Durkheim are collective representations. For example, language of the community, the credit system or monetary system of a nation.

2. Collective representations may be defined as any subject matter into which the ideas of the society have been condensed.

3. Collective representations reflect collective values and beliefs. Myths, popular legends, religious doctrines, moral beliefs, proverbs, customs and traditions are suitable examples of collective representations.

4. Collective representations express the way in which the objects which affect it.

5. In short, the content of social life cannot be explained by purely psychological factors. The individuals have to conform to these collectively established ways of thinking and behaving. They are not created by any individual on his own.

1. The definition of crime may be more surprising when Emile Durkheim says that crime is normal. Durkheim urges that sociologists would distinguish between normal and pathological.

2. Normal fact is also healthy. It assists on the functioning of a society.

3. The pathological fact disturbs or obstructs this functioning.

4. Crime is normal because, first, the commitment of a crime and its punishment reminds the members of the values and norms of the society. They, thus assists to reinforce values and social boundaries, and contribute to the cohesion of the society.

5. Crime is a mechanism of social change. It can challenge the same boundaries. The ‘crime’ of Socrates in challenging the Athenian law paved the way for its change.

2. In every society, men enter into social relations which impose themselves on individuals independent of their preferences.

3. In reality, Karl Marx’s basic assumption was, “the economic organisation especially the ownership of property determines the organisation of the rest of the society. The class structure and institutional arrangements as well as cultural values, belief, religious, dogmas and other ideal systems are ultimately a reflection of the economic base of a society.”

Exaplanation :

(a) A person eats, sleeps or reasons. This eating or sleeping or reasoning performed by the individual is an individual fact and not a social fact.

(b) However, there exists a group of phenomena which are not these individual facts. For example, language used by the members of community, the credit system or monetary system of a nation, the norms and practices of a profession do not depend on individual wills. None of these is a product of any individual mind acting in isolation or on its own. These are “a class of externally independent rules or customs which are clearly withdrawn from individual discretion.” The term “social” should be used for these phenomena only. In short we can say that the first feature of social facts is that they are external to individuals.

(c) The second major characteristics of social fact is that it exercises constraining influence on inviduals. Three distinct characteristics of social facts are :

1. They are general throughout society.

2. They are ‘external’ to individuals and exist independently of their will, and

3. They exercise external constrain over individuals.

(d) Social fact becomes evident in the power of external coercion, exercised by the existence of some sanction and by the resistance offered by society against individual efforts to violate them.

An action is social when it is oriented or directed to others in society. Sociology, however is not concerned with all meaningful social action or that meaningful action which is directed towards or takes account of other people with the help of examples from actual social life.

1. Max Weber observed society as a complex and ever shifting play of forces. He developed his notion of ideal type for making scientific generalizations out of our understanding of this infinitely complex and shifting world.

2. It is a collection of features of an entity that are : (a) logically consistent and (b) which render its existence possible.

3. An ideal type is a selection of certain elements, certain traits or characteristics which are distinctive and relvant to the phenomenon on under study.

4. In a way it is an exaggerated picture of a particular reality. Though ideal types are constructed from facts existing in reality, they do not represent or describe the toted reality. Ideal type is a mental construct.

5. Max Weber constructed the ideal types of domination : Rational (justified by the caste, custom, etc) and Charismatic (justified by the exceptional virtue of the leader). They may be used to reconstruct and understand actual political regimes. Most of the actual political regimes, however, contain elements of each of the three types of domination.

1. Rational-legal domination

2. Traditional domination, and

3. Charismatic authority or domination.

1. Rational - legal Domination is based on rational legitimacy. It rests on a belief in the legality of normative rules. It accepts the right of those who exercise authority under legally defined rules to issue commands.

2. Traditional Domination : Traditional domination (or authority) depends on traditional legitimacy. Traditional legitimacy rests on an established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditions. It is based on habitual way of thinking.

3. Charismatic Domination : Charismatic domination (or authority) is based on charismatic legitimacy. Charisma means a gift of grace. Charismatic legitimacy depends on devotion to the specific and exceptional sancity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person. Charismatic domination is based on the normative patterns prescribed by the individual possessing charisma.

(i) Goal-Rational Action : In goal oriented rational action, an individual is able to rationally select his own behavioural goals and the means for their attaintment. Both goal and means are rationally chosen. These acting are performed after very careful consideration. The action of an engineer who builds a bridge by the most efficient technique of relating means to ends is an example of this type.

(ii) Valve-Rational Action : This type of action is rational on the same that it is determined by the agent’s ethical or religious belief that a form of action has an absolute valve independent of the result. These actions are performed under the influence of ethical values.

(iii) Emotional Action : Action is affective or emotional, when the means and ends of action are selected on the basis of emotional criteria. Since these actions are performed under certain emotions these may or may not be rational.

(iv) Traditional Action : Action is traditional when custom prescribes the selection of ends and means. Traditional action is guided by customary habits of thought.

Conclusion : (a) In Max Weber’s view, meaning of social action was closely related to rationality.

(b) Meaningful actions are linked to golal -rationality and value rationality. Affective and traditional actions are border - line cases. As an understanding sociology Max Weber’s project is based on the notion of rational action.

1. Max Weber made a distinction between Rational, Traditional and Legal authority.

2. Max Weber argues that people obey authority when they view it as legitimate. Claims to legitimacy may be based on

(i) Rational grounds rooted in laws,

(ii) Traditional grounds, and

(iii) Legal grounds.

(i) Rational authority is based on rational -legitimacy. It accepts the right of those who exercise authority under legally.

(ii) Traditional authority depends on traditional legitimacy. It is based on habitual way of thinking.

(iii) Legal authority is based on rules or legals acts of an administrative type are recorded in writing. The officials in a bureaucratic type of administration must act impersonally and according to rules which define their specific spheres of competence.

1. Raymond Aron described Max Weber as “the sociologist”. It is, therefore, very surprising to know that Max Weber himself was opposed to creation of professorship in Sociology. Karl Jaspers, “Three Essays : Leonardo, Descartes and Weber” (1953). He (Max Weber) became sociologist explanations must relate to the self-conscious actions of individual poeple.

2. Max Weber had a dirust of superficial generalizations. He realised the urgent requirement of analysis of institutions and events in their own context.

3. Max Weber also believed that it is possible to construct trans-cultural and trans-temporal concepts in terms of which human history can be categorized and its course can be casually explained. Of course, it may not be possible to predict its future course.

1. Max Weber’s approach to sociology was directly related to Methoderstrit or the German debate about the proper method for the social sciences. On one side of the debate were those who felt the social science should emulate the natural science by searching for general laws that govern all human behaviour.

2. During German debate, on the other hand, there were those people who argued that accounts of social action had to be rooted in a particular historical context. Max Weber desired to overcome this divide by insisting on that social sciences should seek casual arguments that would generate about social actions and would pay attention to the context in which an action takes place.

Go to your school library and precure literary works of both scholars and try to write worth they have written about India. You can take help from subject teacher and libarian also.

Their ideas and thought can inspire us to go for higher studies and to work for the enlightenment, development, for social justice, etc.

1. Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a great social thinker of the twentieth century. Some of his thoughts acquired the character of an ideology which is generally known as ‘Marxism’.

2. Marxist ideas have found place in almost all disciplines of Social Sciences.

3. In Sociology there is a distinct school of Marxism. On the request of the Communist League, he along with his friend Friedrich Engles wrote The Communist Manifesto which continues to be the most quoted document. In this propaganda pamphlet, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles developed the theme of class struggle, which is central to Marxist thoughts.

4. Karl Marx’s writings can be Classified in to two periods :

(a) Youthful period (1841-1848) and

(b) Mature Period (1848 onwards)

(a) During first period, Marx wrote number of short articles or essays and books like The Introduction to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law and the essay on The Jewish Questions. More significant writings of this period (1841-1848) are The Holy Family and The Philosophy of Poverty. The otherworks of this periods were published after his death.

The writings which got considerable attention are Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844.

The German Ideology and The Communist Manifesto.

5. Karl Marx’s other significant contributions which are often associated with mature period after 1848 are:

(i) The Class Struggle in France, (1820).

(ii) The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bona Parte (1852) and

(iii) Karl Marx’s other major vital contribution is a three volume classic Das Kapital. The first volume of this work was published in 1857.

(i) Birth of modern industry and systematic use of science and technology : The foundations of modern indsutry were laid by the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It had some major aspects. For example, it was the systematic application of science and technology to industrial production, particularly the invention of new machines and the harnessing of new sources of power.

(ii) New ways of organising labour and Market : The industrial revolution also evolved new ways of organising labour and markets on a scale larger than anything in the past.

(iii) Use of machines, rise of factory system and production of manufactured goods on large scale : New machines like the Spinning Jenny (which greatly increased the productivity of the textile industry) and new methods of obtaining power (such as the various versions of the steam engine) facilitated the production process and gave rise to the factory system and mass manufacture of goods. These goods were now produced on a gignatic scale for distant markets across the world.

(iv) Getting raw material all over the world : The raw materials used in their production were also obtained from all over the world. Modern large scale industry thus became a world wide phenomenon.

(v) Major changes in the social life : These changes in the production system also resulted in major changes in social life. The factories set up in urban areas were manned by workers who were uprooted from the rural areas and came to the cities in search of work.

(vi) Low wages : Low wages at the factory meant that men, women and even children had to work long hours in hazardous circumstances to eke out a living. Modern industry enabled the urban to dominate over the rural. Cities and towns became the dominant forms of human settlement, housing large and unequal populations in small, densely populated urban areas. The rich and powerful lived in the cities, but so did the working classes who lived in slums amidst poverty and squalor.

(vii) Development of new type of Government : Modern forms of government, with the same assuming control of health, sanitation, crime control and general development created the demand for new kinds of knowledge. The social sciences and particularly sociology emerged partly as a response to this need.

(viii) Outset of sociological thoughts :

From the outset of sociological thought was concerned with the scientific analysis of developments in industrial society. This has prompted observers to argue that sociology was the ‘science of the new industrial society’.

(ix) Advent of modern industrial society : Empirically informed scientific discussion about trends in social behaviour only became possible with the advent of modern industrial society. The scientific information generated by the state to monitor and maintain the health of its social body becase the basis for reflection on society. Sociological theory was the result of this self-reflection.

(i) A broad system of Production : Marx’s conception of the economy was based on the notion of a mode of production, which stood for a broad system of production associated with an epoch or historical period. Primitive communalism, slavery, feudalism and capitalism were all modes of production. At this general level, the mode of production defines an entire way of life characteristics of an era.

(ii) Specific Level of Production : At a more specific level, we can think of the mode of production as being something like a building in the sense that it consits of a foundation or base, and a superstructure or something erected on top of the base.

(iii) Factor of Production : The base — or economic base — is primarily economic and includes the productive forces and production relations. Productive forces refer to all the means or factors of production such as land, labour, technology, sources of energy (such as electricity, coal, petroleum and so on).

(iv) Economic relationship and form of organisation : Production relations refer to all the economic relationships and forms of labour organisation which are involved in production. Production relations are also property relations, or relationships based on the ownership or control of the means of production.

(v) Primitive Communism : For example, in the mode of production called primitive communism, the productive forces consisted mostly of nature — forests, land, animals and so on — along with very rudimentary forms of technology like simple stone tools and hunting weapons. Production relations were based on community property (since individual private property did not yet exist) and included tribal forms of hunting or gathering which were the prevalent forms of labour organisation.

(vi) Productive forces and relations of productions : The economic base thus consisted of productive forces and relations of production. On this base rested all the social, cultural and political institutions of society. Thus, institutions like religion, art, law, literature or different forms of beliefs and ideas were all part of the ‘superstructure’ which was built on top of the base. Marx argued that people’s ideas and beliefs originated from the economic system of which they were part.

(vii) Relation between ideas and material life : How human beings earned their livelihood determined how they thought — material life shaped ideas, ideas did not shape material life. This argument went against the dominant ways of thinking in Marx’s time, when it was common to argue that human beings were free to think whatever they wanted and that ideas shaped the world.

(viii) Economic structure and Process : Marx placed great emphasis on economic structures and processes because he believed that they formed the foundations of every social system throughout human history. If we understood how the economy works and how it has been changing in the past, he argued, we can learn how to change society in the future. But how can such change be brought about ? Marx’s answer : through class struggle.

(ii) Formation of classes through historical process : Classes are formed through historical processes, which are in turn shaped by transformations in the conditions and forces of production, and consequent conflicts between already existing classes. As the mode of production — that is, the production technology and the social relations of production — changes, conflicts develop between different classes which result in struggles.

(iii) Example : For instance, the capitalist mode of production creates the working class, which is a new urban, property-less group created by the destruction of the feudal agricultural system.

(iv) Serfs and Small peasants : Serfs and small peasants were thrown off their lands and deprived of their earlier sources of livelihood. They then congregated in cities looking for ways to survive, and the pressure of the laws and police forced them to work in the newly, built factories. Thus a large new social group was created consisting of property-less people who were forced to work for their living. This shared location within the production process makes workers into a class.

(v) Marx as a proponent of class struggle

: Karl Marx was a proponent of class struggle. He believed that class struggle was the major driving force of change in society. In the Communist Manifesto (which was also a programme of action). Marx and Engels presented their views in a clear and concise manner. Its opening lines declare. ‘The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle.

(vi) Course of human history and nature of the class struggle : They went on to trace the course of human history and described how the nature of the class struggle varied in different historical epochs. As society evolved from the primitive to the modern through distinct phases, each characterised by particular kinds of conflict between the oppressor and theoppressed classes. Marx and Engels wrote, ‘Freeman and slave, the patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried out an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight. The major opposing classe of each stage were identified from the contradictions of the production process.

(vii) Bourgeoisie owned all the means of production : In capitalism the bourgeoise (or capitalist) owned all the means of production, (such as investible capital, existing factories and machinery, land and so on). On the other hand, the working class lost all the means of production that it owned (or had access to) in the past. Thus, in the capitalist social system, workers had no choice but to sell their labour for wages in order to survive, because they had nothing else.

(viii) Classes do not automatically engage in coflict : Even when two classes are objectively opposed to each other, they do not automatically engage in conflict. For conflict to occur it is necessary for them to become sujectively conscious of their class interests and identities, and therefore also of their rivals’ interests and identities. It is only after this kind of ‘class consciousness’ is developed through political mobilisation that class conflicts occur. Such conflicts can lead to the overthrow of a dominant or ruling class (or coalition of classes) by the previously dominated or subordinated classess — this is called a revolution.

(ix) In Marx’s theory, economic processes created contradictions which in turn generated class conflict. But economic processes did not automatically lead to revolution — social and political processes were also needed to bring about a total transformation of society.

(x) Presence of ideology : The presence of ideology is one reason why the relationship between economic and socio-political processes becomes complicated. In every epoch, the ruling classes promote a dominant ideology. This dominant idelogy, or way of seeing the world, tends to justify the domination of the ruling class and the existing social order. For example, dominant ideologies may encourage poor people to believe that they are poor not because they are exploited by the rich but because of ‘fate’, or because of bad deeds in a previous life, and so on.

(xi) Conflict with rival ideologies :

However, dominant ideologies are not always successful, and they can also be challenged by alternative worldviews or rival ideologies. As consciousness spreads unevenly among classes, how a class will act in a particular historical situation cannot be pre-determined. Hence, according to Marx, economic processes generally tend to generate class conflicts, though this also depends on political and social conditions. Given favourable conditions, class conflicts culminate in revolutions.

1. Class struggle means antagonism. Karl Marx first of all expresses this idea or theory in his work (alongwith his friend Freidrich Engels) ‘The communist Manifestos’. He argues that human history is characterised by the struggle between different social classes. Antagonism exists between the oppressor and the oppresesed which polarises the two block i.e., Bourgeoises and Proletariat.

2. Karl Marx was of the view that human society passed through various stages of development viz. (i) Primitive Communal, (ii) Ancient, (iii) Feudal and (iv) Capitalist (modern bourgeois). Each of these stages of development is defined by the mode of production.

3. For Karl Marx land, labour, capital and enterprises are major factors of production. A sum total of these factors constitute the mode of production.

4. The oppressors have control over the factors of production and the oppressed are deprived of it. Therefore, another phase ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is used to characterise these two classes.

5. Each stages of development contained the seeds of its own destruction. The conflict whether it is between master and slaves, land lords and serfs, bourgeoisie and proletariat characterised all stages of development.

6. The contenders differed in each stage. The class struggle takes palce in the capitalistic stage of development. The bourgeoise (i.e., the capitalists) and the proletariat become polarised and conflict takes place between them.

7. It is the capitalist mode of production when proletariat (working class) becomes conscious of its class position. At this stage the proletariats acquire the revolutionary character by overthrowing these oppressors, that is capitalist or bourgeoisie.

8. Karl Marx explained the process of class struggle with the help of dialectical materialism.

9. According to Karl Marx, classes are determined on the basis of individual’s relation to the means of production. These relations are independent of individual’s will.

10. Individual’s class is determined not on the basis of his/her occupation (or rank) but on the basis of his/her position (status) relative to the means of production (i.e., land, labour, capital and enterprise).

11. In a capitalist society, the means of production and distribution of products are in the hands of the few, the so called ‘haves’. These few people who have the economic power also take control of political machinery including the courts, the police and the military. The class which is economically dominant also dominates the intellectual sphere.

1. The history of mankind is characterised by increasing control of man over nature which led to this increasing alienation of man.

2. Alienation has been described by Coser “as a condition in which men are dominated by forces of their own creation, which confront them as alien powers.”

3. The term alienation may be traced to the word ‘alien’ which means ‘foreigner’ and therefore alientaion would mean becoming stranger to one’s own people and the product, etc.

4. In a capitalistic society alienation controls every institutional sphere such as economy, polity and even religion. Of the different kinds of alienation, Karl Marx thinks economic alienation as the most important as it involves human being’s daily activities.

5. Economic alienation involves four aspects : the worker is alienated (i) from the object he produces, (ii) from the process of production, (iii) from himself and (iv) from the community of his fellows.

6. The alienation of worker from the object of his labour as well as from the process of production leads to his alienation from himself and he is unable to fully develop the several aspects of his personality.

7. The worker does not feel easy at his working place. All the time he (or she) thinks that the work he (or she) is doing belongs to another person (i.e., the owner of the factory). The worker puts his/her whole life into the product he produces but the very product becomes alien to him (or her) and strengthens the hands of his (her) exploiters. This leads to a feeling of apathy and indifference towards his/ her work, his (her) own self and his fellow beings.

8. The predicament of worker in industrial society has been further analysed by other Marxist mainly Herbert Marcuse who called this stage of man ‘one dimensional man’.

9. Karl Marx used the expression ‘Cog in a Wheel’ to express the state of worker’s precarious existence in the process of production.

10. Karl Marx urges that there are two hostile powers that alienate a worker from his product, (i) One is the capitalist who controls the process of production, and (ii) the second one is the market situation which controls the capital and the process of production. The finished product belongs to someone else who is free to use it in whatever manner he chooses. In this way, the capitalist becomes more powerful. The worker is too adversly affected by the fluctuations in the market price and in the movement of capital.

11. Finally, the worker is alienated not only from himself (or herself), but from other men too. Every person is alienated from others, and each of others is likewise alienated from human life.

1. Karl Marx was of the view that individuals make their own history. In the course of whole human history, people have continuously made efforts to dominate and control the nature to make it better serve their own purposes. While transforming nature, they have also been transforming themselves.

2. Karl Marx believed that human history is the history of class struggle. However, the parties involved in class struggle differ in different stages of human history depending upon the strange mode of production of that times. But the antagonism between the exploiters and those who are exploited is the distinctive feature of all stages of human history.

3. Human being, first priority according to Karl Marx is to sustain them economically. For this, they develop their own implements and techniques in order to cotrol the material resources of nature. By doing this they are in a position to meet their basic requirements such as food, cloth and shelter, essential for their survival.

4. Because it is not possible for any one person to struggle against nature, they (human beings or various persons) create specific types of social organistions depending upon the means of production which usually differ from society to society.

5. In simple words, we can argue that an individuals can perform different forms of works, but aas the society system grows and develops, it becomes impossible for an individual to perform different functions. In such developed societies, division of labour becomes a necessity which leads to the emergence of the system of stratification. For Karl Marx, human beings control over nature forms the material basis of society and other social institutions are secondary.

6. Karl Marx differentiate between the economic bases of social change, which he calls infrastructure and the superstructure. The infrastructure chiefly consists of forces and relations of production while the superstructure consist of legal and political institutions. To bring any change, it is necessary to change the infrastructure consisting of forces and relations of production. These changes will automatically bring changes in the superstructure.

7. Karl Marx explained his view of social change by incorporating the dialectical nature of reality. The process of dialectical works at three different levels namely thesis, antithesis and synthesis.

8. The term, dialectics in simple terms, means struggle of opposite powers, which may characterised by conflict which is inherent in the very process of production.

According to Durkheim the subject matter of sociology is the study of social facts. Social facts and its study makes sociology different from other social sciences.

Recongnition of Social Facts :

(i) Sociology concerned itself exclusively with what he called the ‘emergent’ level, that is the level of complex collective life where social phenomena can emerge. These phenomena — for example, social institutions like religion or the family, or social values like friendship or patriotism etc. — were only possible in a complex whole that was larger constituent parts.

(ii) Although it is composed entirely of individuals, a collective social entity like a football or cricket team becomes something other than and much more than just a collection of eleven persons. Social entities like team, political parties, street gangs, religious communities, nations and so on belong to a different level of reality than the level of individuals. It is this ‘emergent’ level that sociology studies.

(iii) Abstract of social facts : The second defining features of Durkheim’s vision of sociology was that, like most of the natural sciences, it was to be an empirical discipline. This was actually a difficult claim to make because social phenomena are by their very nature abstract. We cannot ‘see’ a collective entity like the Jain community, or the Bengali (or Malayalam or Marathi) speaking community, or the Nepalese or Egyptian national communities. At least, we cannot see them in the same straightforward way that we can see a tree or a boy or a cloud.

(iv) Individual person can be seen but not collectivity itself : Even when the social phenomenon is small — like a family or a theatre group — we can directly see only the individuals who make up the collectivity; we cannot see the collectivity itself. One of Durkhem’s most significant achievements is his demonstration that sociology, a discipline that dealt with abstract entities like social facts, could nevertheless be a science founded on observable emprirically verifiable evidence.

(v) Social facts are indirectly observable : Although not directly observable social facts were indirectly observable through patterns of behaviour. The most famous example of his use of a new kind of empirical data is in his study of suicide. Although each individual case of suiside was specific to the individual and his/ her circumstances, the average rate of suicide aggregated across hundreds of thousands of individuals in a community was a social fact. Thus, social facts could be observed via social behaviour, and specially aggregated patterns of social behaviour.

(ii) To understand to human behaviour : For Max Weber ‘social action’ included all human behaviour that was meaningful, that is, action to which actors attached a meaning. In studying social action the sociologist’s task was to recover the meanings attributed by the actor. To accomplish this task the sociologist had to put themselves in the actor’s place, and imagine what these meanings were or could have been.

(iii) Understanding : Sociology was thus a systematic form of ‘empathetic understanding’, that is an understanding based not on ‘feelings for’ (sympathy) but ‘feeling with’ (empathy). The empathic (or empathic) understanding which sociologits derive from this exercise enable them to access the subjective meanings and motivations of social actors.

(iv) To dicuss the special and complex kind of objectivity : Weber was among the first to discuss the special and complex kind of ‘objectivity’ that the social sciences had to cultivate. The social world was founded on subjective human meanings, values, feelings, prejudices, ideals and so on. In studying this world, the social sciences inevitably had to deal with these subjective meanings.

(v) Empathic Understanding : In order to capture these meaning and describe them accurately, social scientists had to constantly practise ‘empathetic understanding’ by putting themselves (imaginatively) in the place of the people whose actions they were studying. But this investigation had to be done objectively even though it was concerned with subjective matters.

(vi) For value neutrality : Empathic understanding required the sociologist to faithfully record the subjective meanings and motivations of social actors without allowing his/ her own personal beliefs and opinions to influence this process in any way. In other words, sociologists were meant to describe, not judge, the subjective feelings of others.

(vii) Objectivity According to Max Weber : Weber called this kind of objectivity ‘Value neutrality’. The sociologist must neutrally record subjective values without being affected by her/his own feelings/opinions about these values. Weber recognised that this was very difficult to do because social scientists were also members of society and always had their own subjective beliefs and prejudices. However, they had to practise great self, discipline — exercise an ‘iron will’ as he puts it — in order to remain ‘Value neutral’ when descrifing the values and worldviews of others.

1. Karl Marx (1818-1883) was of the opinion that individuals make their own history. People tried to transform nature for their own interest and they had also been transforming themselves. But the antagonism between the exploiters and those who are exploited is the distinctive feature of all stages of human history.

2. Human beings create specific forms of social organisations depending upon the means of production which differ from society to society.

3. As societies change from simple to complex, in such societies division of labour becomes a necessity which leads to the emergence of the system of stratification.

4. Marx favours that to bring any change, it is essential to change the infrastructure consisting of forces and relations of production. These changes will automatically bring changes in the superstructure.

5. Karl Marx borrowed the dialetic from Hegel, a German philosopher who applied the concept of dialectics at the spiritual level which is called dialetical spiritualism. The contribution of Karl Marx lies in providing a material reference to the dialectical process of change in nature and human society.

6. On the basis of their economic regimes and modes of production, Karl Marx identified four stages in human history. The stages are the primitive communal, the ancient, the feudal, and the modern bourgeois form.

7. When Karl Marx worked on Asian countries, then he used the term Asiatic mode of production for primitive communal stage. Except the Asiatic mode of production, the other three were part of the history of Western Countries. Each of these three stages are characterised by the type of relationships among the individuals who work.

8. According to Karl Marx, class antagonism in each of the four referred modes of production, (i.e., ancient, feudal, capitalistic and the Asiatic) differs. Each time new classes with a noble productive principle emerged and broke down the old order and create new material conditions.

9. The bourgeois relations of production, according to Karl Marx, are the last antagonistic form of the social process of production. He was of the firm opinion that the proletariat will overthrow the bourgeois and the dialiectical principle of the forces and relations of production will cease to operate and harmony will replace social conflict in the affairs of human beings. Harmonious relations is the chief characteristics of the socialist society.

10. Karl Marx’s main stress is that the human society was the developmental outcome of the material activities of individuals over nature which in turns determines other social institutions of individuals. He calls this process as historical materialism which was further developed by Engels. Lenin and Stalin called it is dialectical materialism.

11. The nature of dialectical reality has further been explained by the sociologists who subscribe the ideas of Marxist School. Coser and Dahrendor are the two notable advocates of the dialectical nature of conflict and change.

I. Egoistic Suicide : It is characterised by excessive self-reflection on personal matters and withdrawal from the outside world.

Egoism takes place, according to Emile Durkheim, because the tie binding the individual to others is slackened. In this a person gives too much significance to her or his own self or ego, and is not properly integrated in society.

The rate of egoistic suicide increases as a result of the weakening of the bonds of solidarity of the family, religion and political organisations.

II. Altruistic Suicide : It takes place when the individual is over-integrated with society.

In such a condition suicides occur for the cause of society. These are in the nature of sacrifice for the society or a type of altruism or self-denial.

Sati and Jauhar or the suicide of followers on the death of their chiefs are the examples of altruistic suicide.

In this way, we can say that excessive individualism marks egoistic suicide and underdeveloped egoism or excessive agression is the feature of altruistic suicide.

III. Anomic Suicide : Generally this type of suicide is found in societies, which experience sudden changes.

Anomic or normlessness may be defined as the state, which results from the weakening of the powers in society that regulate social equilibrium. It is society’s job to set outside limits on social wants and desires of individuals. When these limits are absent or fall to be set, individuls feel unlimited want, Also their power of bearing with frustration declines. As a result, whenever the individuals meets frustration, he cannot with stand it. He puts an end to his life.

Example : For instance, situations such as sudden setback in business or gain in wealth or political upheavals in quick succession leads to a state of normlessness or anomie in societies. Thus, the rate of anomic suicide increases.

IV. Fatalistic Suicide : It takes place because of an exessive degree of regulation and an overly developed regime.

Example : As an example of fatalistic suicide, Emile Derkheim cited the suicide of enslavement under the master, take their own lives.

1. Early Life : Emile Durkheim was born in 1853 in France. He completed his early education at Ecole. He was impressed by the thoughts of several scholars at Ecole. He appreciated Renouvier’s commitment to rationalism, his concern with scientific study of morality, his anti-utilitarianism, and his advocacy of secular education.

2. Durkheim efforts for the Sociology as a separate Subject. Boutroux, Emile Durkheim derived the principle that each science is irreducible to the principle shaped Durkheim own conceptualism of the distinctive subject matter and methodology of Sociology. Under Boutroux’s guidance he also engaged in a close reading of Auguste Compte, the inventor of the term ‘Sociology’. After his graduation from the Ecole Durkheim began working for the doctoral degree.

In 1885-86, Durkheim spent an academic year in Germany studying contemporary development in social philosophy and ‘Collectivity Psychological’. There he obtained a clear sense of social reality, of its organic complexity and development. By 1886, Emile Durkheim prepared the first draft of his major doctoral dissertation, which was to become The Division of Labour in Society. It dealt chiefly with the relation between individual personality and social solidarity.

3. Fifteen years of Durkheim at Bordeaux. In fact after Ecole nearly fifteen years of Emile Durkheim at Bordeanx proved to be extremely fuitful. In addition to numerous reviews and articles, he published several books.

Emile Durkheim’s lectures on sociological subjects further strengthened the claim for sociology as a separate discipline. In addition, Durkheim founded L’ Anne Sociologique (1898-1913), the first social science journal in France.

II. Classification of Social Types : Emile Durkheim maintains that in order to understand and explain social facts, we must classify societies into “types”, as problems and their explanations will vary for each type.

A social fact is normal or pathological only in relation to a society. Emile Durkheim proposes that we must study particular society completely and then compare these to see the similarities and differences.

Emile Durkheim desires societies to be classified to their degree of organisation, taking as the basis of the ‘perfectly simple society’ or ‘society of one segment’ like the horde.

1. Marx Weber’s famous work, The protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was published close to his death. (He died in 1920). The book says that ascetic Protestantism fostered a spirit of modern capitlism marked by a ceaseless obligation to earn money and to reinvest profit.

2. The basic points called by Max Weber from Franklin’s writing to his pure type of spirit of the capitalis may be summarized as follows :

(i) Time is money

(ii) Credit is money

(iii) Money begets money. One should never misspend or keep idle even a single paisa.

(iv) One must be punctual in repaying the debt.The good pay master is lord of another man’s purse i.e., if a person pays his debts when they are due, they will always be able to borrow as much as they can.

(v) One should keep carefully accounts of his income and expenditure and it is should be in fully detail also.

(vi) One should always be known for prudence and industry. One should not spend time idly.

3. Spirit of modern Capitalism :

(?) Observance of above described six points or rules nurtures the spirit of modern capitalism.

(b) This spirit is “that attitude which seeks profit rationally and systematically”. It is a philosophy of ceaseless and rational pursuit of profit.

(c) Max Weber urged that the movement to a capitalist society was primarily caused by the habits, attitudes and beliefs of Protestanism, more specifically of Calvinism (i.e., Doctrines of John Calvin which were followed by a section of Protestant Christians); and most especially of English Puritanism.

(d) Puritans worked hard, methodically and rationally, in their callings i.e., tasks which are called to perform in the occupational world. In this way, they stored treasures.

(e) But the asceticism of Puritanism does not permit its followers to consume amassed treasure.

(f) Side by side their creed did not allow them to let their money lie idle.

(g) As a result, the puritans, invested, denied the flesh and produced a new economic order.

(a) Class : (i) Karl Marx defined class in terms of ownership of the means of production. Max Weber defined a class as a category of individuals who “have in common a specific component of their life chances”, (ii) economic interests in represented exclusively by economic interests is the possession of goods and opportunities for income and it is represented under the conditions of the commodity and labour market classes acan never be communities.

(b) Status-groups : (i) According to Max Weber, status-groups are communuties. Status situation is determined by a specific-positive or negative - social honour. It is not essentially determined by class situation.

(ii) Members of status-groups are held together by notions of proper life-styles or consumption patterns and social esteem or honour-accorded to them by others.

(iii) Status differences are associated with expectations of restrictions of social intercourse with those not belonging to the particular status groups and with assumed social distance between it and the inferiors.

(c) Parties : (i) According to Max Weber power (or authority) is another scare resource. Power is the change of a man or a number of men to realize their own will in communal action, even against the resistance of others.

(ii) Many are cocerned with getting as much of it as possible for themselves. In fact, all people desire to avoid subjection to the authority of others, struggle for power, therefore, characteristics all societies.

(iii) The struggle is carried on by political interest groups including parties of modern societies.

(iv) Parties are the groupings in the arena of power. Their action is oriented towards the acquisition of social power. In this way, inequality on the basis of power emerges in society.

1. India had been economincally fairly adavanced prior to the Industrial Revolution (about from 1750 to 1856 A.D.) of the West. But Hinduism failed according to Max Weber, to provide a suitable work ethic for the development of capitalism.

2. Following were the main causes of failure of Hinduism to provide suitable environment for the development of capitalism.

First, Hinduism did not allow individuals to change their respective caste occupations. It, thus, discouraged innovation. The ideas of Karma (कर्म), dharma dharma (धर्म), and Samskara and Samskara Karma (संस्कार), (the cycle of births and rebirths) or punarjanma (पुनर्जन्म), made the Indians fatalists and defeatist. made the Indians fatalists punarjanma (भाग्यवादि), and defeatist.

Secondary, the Hindus as well as the Buddhost idea of salvation or moksha or nirvana states that human beings can be liberated only when they empty themselves of wordly desires or ‘Vasana’ Hinduism, thus preaches ‘other-wordly asceticism’. The material world is de-emphasized, material prosperity is not given importance because it is temporary or illusions.

Thirdly, the rational pursuit of wealth for its own sake and rational organization of work to fulfil this purpose were never encouraged in Hinduism. India had failed to develop capitalism and rational attitudes to life usually because Max Weber urged, her religions (Hinduism and Buddhism) were, “other wordly”. The effects, the notion or ritual purity/impurity as attachment to occupations in the caste system on development were judged by Max Weber as being negative. Indian religions were incapable of ‘giving birth to economic and technical revolutions from within or even of facilitating the first germination of capitalism.

Fourthly, the absence of the concept of national law and citizenship, the lack of national feeling and the passive role of individual strata in society were other factors inhibiting the national pursuit of economic interest in India.

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