Understanding Self in the Modern World

The initial studies of social structures have profoundly illuminated the study and analysis of culture, social relations, history as well as institutions. According to the available literature on sociology, it is widely established that Alexis de Tocqueville was actually the foremost to use the expression social structure; afterward, Marx, Weber and Durkheim among others all had a fundamental input to structural thoughts in sociology. Weber examined and evaluated the institutions of contemporary society: market, administrations and politics. However, one of the original and most inclusive accounts of communal structure was given by Marx, who correlated political, educational, and religious existence to the method of production1.

Marx

Regarding the aspects of explaining the shaping of self, it would be instrumental to posit that, Marx had developed a solid approach in the manner he explained the concept of shaping of self. Consider the fact that, Marx created his hypothesis of alienation to expose the human action that lies at the back of the ostensibly uncongenial forces dominating society. He demonstrated how, although characteristics of the community we live in emerge as normal and autonomous, they are the consequences of earlier period human activities. Therefore, examining the manner Marx postulates his argument; it is instrumental to aver that, the shaping of self is clandestinely anchored within the scope of establishing the concepts of living individually as Me and I 2.

Basically, in order to provide a comprehensive explanation of the innate aspects of self shaping, he asserts that, we are communal actors who continuously construe the connotation and operate in relation to individual consideration of the situation. T...

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...crued from the fact that while the conjectural s of these foremost thinkers deviates significantly, the point from which they developed their observations is the same.

Therefore, by examining their arguments, Marx tends to be the influential candidate in providing the innate understanding of the self in the modern world. This can be linked to the fact that, Marx profoundly pointed out that, self understanding is linked to the economic challenges which resulted in conflict and competition, while Durkheim assumed the concept of self understanding as a scion of normative condition, and Weber considered the concept of self understanding on the plane of political approach as is with capitalism which provided an environment for both social and individual understanding. Thus, I am of the opinion that, Weber is most adequate to understanding the self in the modern world