Marx, Durkheim, Weber Understanding Of Religion Within Society

10 Pages 2462 Words

he longed for a putative return. People would have duties and roles, but their work would be an extension of their personality and would be inherently fulfilling to them, while at the same time contributing to the good of the entire community. In such a system, goods achieved or manufactured by the labour of individuals would be shared throughout the group, each person always attaining what was needed to live (food, clothing, shelter) and to be productive (raw materials), but no more.
Continuing to speculate about communal society, Marx states that the advent of ownership would introduce into this idyllic scene the disruptive process of barter, which requires the evaluation of and negotiation for goods and services. Marx insisted that stratification would occur soon thereafter when "by talent, crime, or good fortune, some acquire more and better private property while others are left with virtually nothing" (130)*. Furthermore, in agricultural societies, whoever holds the land owns "not just products but the very means of production" (130)*. The "haves" and the "have-not’s" are thereby quickly distinguished and permanently established. Marx thought that these nascent inequities of power and wealth went on to evolve over the centuries – first into the relationship between a master and his slaves, then that of a lord with his serfs, and finally manifested as that between a factory owner and his workers. In such a paradigm, the proletariat is only able to earn enough to barely subsist while the fruits of its labour continue to make the bourgeoisie even wealthier.
Marx was a reductionism who thought that religion (and nearly all other phenomena) could only be properly understood as "a symptom of something more real and substantial that lies underneath it," which he called the "base" (145)*. He
insisted that "economic facts have formed the foundation of social life; they are the base that generates the division of labour, the strugg...