Philosophers on Theories of Religion in Society

Compare Marxs and Durkheims theories of religion in society

Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim are often cited as the founding fathers of the social sciences. Marx believed in communism; he viewed religion as a way of justifying and preserving the class system and warranting that the status quo of the ideology that is dominant in the society is maintained. Durkheim, on the other hand, believed religion was a unifying system of beliefs and practices comparative to the things that are sacred to a particular community. Both theorists believe that religion is a form of giving the social order and keeping a specific system in place that people cannot question.

Burlingtonian feels like the coop is meant for upper-middle-class people who have been trained to look down upon lower-income people. Therefore, they do not fit into that social class. Bourdieu would view the incident as a cultural capital conflict where individuals have attained a certain level of cultural capital that is contrasting and therefore forming different social classes that cannot coexist. Marxist would view the situation as a capitalist society that has significant influence and consequently they have a say on whether coop should become the city's supermarket or not.

DuBois and Gilman on being part of the classical canon

Dubois was a sociologist who agreed with Marx theory on capitalism; he established the concept of double consciousness where described the difficulties of African Americans to unify their black identity with their American identity. Gilman on the other hand also conquers with some of Marxs arguments; she believes that the source of social inequality is in gender. She was a female theorist who argued from a feminist perspective by challenging the patriarchal bias of societys principles and institutions. Sociology will benefit more if the classical canon is broadened to include more perspectives. Both Gilman and Dubois differ significantly from other, Gilman theorizes on gender stratification while Dubois articulates the race barrier, they both were greatly influenced by the work of classical theorist. However, they benefit from being in a position that none of the other theorists could have experienced.

Max Weber tries to explain how ethics of ascetic Protestantism lead to the emergence of modern capitalism by arguing that religious groups such as the Calvinists believe in predestination. Thus, they looked for their worldly success for clues if they were saved or damned. Therefore, profit and materialistic success became a sign of God's favor. Modern bureaucracies derive its ideas that are similar to those of religious group, its traits are identical such as its hierarchical and managed by rules. From a spiritual perspective, material success is a sign of God's favor.

Robert Merton was a structural functionalism who emphasized that some components of a society may not be in harmony with the predicted results. Merton hypothesized that deviance in a society occurs when values of that specific community are out of sync with means available to achieve them. Therefore the nation becomes dysfunctional due to the disconnect between the cultural and social realms. On the contrary, the Frankfurt school scholars extended Marxian reproaches of capitalist society by conveying forms of social emancipatory policies. They, however, agree with Merton's idea of a dysfunctional system and argue that knowing the source of social emancipation. They say that knowledge turns into social criticism and transform self into social action.

Parsons was a structural functionalist who was more interested in social order. He argued that the idea of the hierarchical class system was necessary for a society to function since the inequality is what kept the society moving by giving people desire to achieve more. Parsons articulated the idea that without the willingness from individual improvement, the society as a whole would become stagnant. Merton, on the other hand, asserted on the idea that institutional structures and cultural elements lead to stability of society. However, he established the concept of dysfunction that lets functional theory to concentrate on social change. He maintained that a structure of society could only be scrutinized regarding both dynamics (change) and statics (stability).

According to Bourdieu, cultural capital could occur in three forms, which are; objectified state, which is best explained as cultural goods, i.e., as books and photos, embodied state, this entails the dispositions of the mind and body, and institutionalized state, a type of objectification. Bourdieu developed the cultural capital and incorporated habitus' to explain how relationships of social inequality were reproduced through the educational system. The idea of habitus comes into play in the embodied state where there is a certain organized way in which individuals perceive the social world around them and react to it.

Betty Friedan established a thesis that most women suffered due to the pervasive societal system of delusions, that gives women fabricated values that urge them to develop personal satisfaction through their soul mates and children in her controversial book The Feminine Mystique. From Audrey Lordes point of view, this delusion is a form of human blindness; she would also argue that oppression of women is a failure to identify the notion of diversity as a dynamic human force and one, which is enriched instead of threatening. Dorothy Smith would argue that the form of delusion is dependent on ones standpoint, where the particular person stands; in that specific society and thus women should perceive that standpoint as their entry point and not take it for granted.

Goffman writes from a symbolic interactionist perspective; he is mostly known for taking a qualitative analysis in this interactive process. His style of dealing with issues from a micro level has shortcomings in the sociological study in that it does not give a general view that can be used to generate hypothesis in a sociological concept. The main problem is that at a micro level people are different are they are influenced by various aspects thus making it hard to generate a general perspective about a particular behavior from a qualitative approach.

Intersectionality is a sociological theory that describes multiple forms of threats and discriminations faced by an individual whose identity overlaps with some minority classes. Patricia Hill Collins argues that oppression is not addictive in that it does not start with gender and then add other variables but instead sees the distinctive forms of oppression as part of an overarching structure of dominance on which all, the systems are dependent on one another. Thus, intersectionality focuses on how the policies of oppression are interconnected in different peoples lives.

According to Comte sociology is a science since it uses four types of methodologies, (observation, experimentation, comparison and historical research) which are similar methods used in other fields of science such as biology. Durkheim argued that sociology is a study of social facts, he used methodology while analyzing suicide thus establish the statistics on suicide rates. Weber's methodology answers whether sociology is a science, he uses "Verstehen which means interpretation therefore as a scientific method of sociology, interpretive sociology can be defined as a science. The reason why sociology is less viewed as a science is due to the lack of fundamental theories they all agreed on such as with other fields where scientist have some common grounds. However, this does not mean that sociology is not a science since different scientific areas also work on models that are not universal, that is similar to the many diverse models shared by sociologists.

Emile Durkheim offers one of the best sociological frameworks with him functionalist perspective. He argued that human beings exhibit desires that end up causing chaos unless they are limited by the society. Therefore, adequate socialization and social integration are vital for social stability. All the institutions in a specific society offer a critical function that helps ensure stability, and thus changes of individual systems should be gradual rather than rapid to avoid instability. Durkheim would probably argue that inequality is a social problem that weakens the stability of the structure of the society but it is not necessarily a fault of the structure. This form of social is instability might be due to the rapid changes in the society due to modernization; they also serve a purpose in the societal stability since not everybody can be equal.

Social theories do more of explaining social stability than changes, in the context of social stability changes are incorporated to enhance the stability of the particular social structure. From the functionalist point of view, it is definite that society is a sum of its parts; each part is functional for the stability of the whole. Derived from Durkheim who envisioned society as an organism where each component plays a critical role but it is not useful on its own. There social problems such as inequality and poverty are a phenomenon that has been there all alone in every society, and they all play a significant part in ensuring that the specific society is stabilized.