Marx, Durkheim, Hobbes, Engels and Weber

In society, we come across shared meanings and these shared meanings produce some type of social order. In order for social order to be constructed, we as individuals must be able to communicate with each other. Also, we need a system where all of us individuals as a whole are willing to cooperate. But where do these shared meanings come from within societies? Marx and Durkheim have come up with theories about how shared meanings are produced. Marx believes are ideas come after the production of materials. While Durkheim believes it is society itself as a moral authority where all individuals are willing to share the same idea.

Marx starts off with saying that our relationship to nature arises from the material world. The relationship of nature to the material world is organized by the capitalist and socialist mode. The individual becomes who he is as Marx states "Thus, what individuals are depends on the material conditions of production."(Marx, 1845-46, pg. 46) The individual first must establish who he is within the organization he is placed in through what he produces. The material, what he produces expresses the life he lives. (Marx, 1845-46, pg. 46) Our consciousness is above in the heavens but do not shape us. Our consciousness is produced through the life we live, the material that comes from the ground, from the earth. (Marx, 1845-46, pg. 47)

This theory of Marx's shared meanings relates somewhat to his theory on the division of labor in society. The ruling ideas that are brought upon in the capitalist mode are not natural, they are made up by the elite through what is being produced. The elite have plenty of time to think, they are left with doing the mental work. While the worker has no time to think because he is ...

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Hobbes, Thomas. (2009). Leviathan (1651). In Hechter, Michael and Christine Horne (Ed.), Theories of Social Order: A Reader (pp. 89-91, 92, 96). Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2nd edition.

Marx, Karl. (2007). The German Ideology (1845). In Craig Calhoun (Ed.), Classical Sociological Theory (p. 83-84). Oxford: Blacwell, 2nd edition.

Marx, Karl. (2009). The Production Of Consciousness (1845-46). In Hechter, Michael and Christine Horne (Ed.), Theories of Social Order: A Reader (pp. 46-47). Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2nd edition.

Weber, Max. (2007). The Types of Legitimate Domination (1914). In Craig Calhoun (Ed.), Classical Sociological Theory (pp. 256-261). Oxford: Blacwell, 2nd edition.