Comparing and contrasting Marx" belief on religion as a social opium, along with Emile Durkheim and Max Weber's understanding and account of religion within society.
How do we account for religion - its origin, its development, and even its persistence in modern society? This is a question, which has occupied many people in a variety of fields for quite a long time. At one point, the answers were framed in purely theological and religious terms, assuming the truth of Christian revelations and proceeding from there. .
But through the 18th and 19th centuries, a more "naturalistic" approach developed. One person who attempted to examine religion from an objective, scientific perspective was Karl Marx. Marx's analysis and critique of religion is perhaps one of the most famous and most quoted by theist and atheist alike. .
The most famous quote from the work of Karl Marx (and one of the most controversial statements in all of philosophy) is his frank assertion that religion "is the opium of the people" (141)*. This pithy comment is indeed a good summation up Marx's straightforward appraisal of religion, which he said "eased pain even as it created fantasies" for those masses of oppressed workers suffering at the hands of a powerful few (141)*.
As a functionalist, Marx insisted that religion does not exist independently, but only operates "to satisfy other needs or conditions" (158)*. He was convinced that "religion is so fully determined by economics that it is pointless to consider any of its doctrines or beliefs on their own merits" (138)*. For Marx, religion serves only to comfort and placate the poor and wretched, while simultaneously justifying and .
protecting the privilege of those in control, and therefore it "should not only be dismissed, but dismissed with scorn" (139)*.
Marx imagined primeval communist societies in which all resources were owned jointly by the members of the community, a social organisation to which he longed for a putative return.
Next that the key understanding reality is understanding the historical change. ... Marx also shared the same views as Feuerbach with regards to religion. He felt that "Religion is the Opium of the people." ... Within any society, social change can create anomie in either the whole society or in some parts in it. ... Durkheim had types of suicide according to their part in society. ...
From the psychological traditions of Freud to the sociological traditions of Durkheim and Marx, these theorists' conclusions explain away religion. ... Both Weber and Eliade's theories are distinct from those of Freud, Durkheim, and Marx. ... For Marx, religion is a social institutions which is dependent upon material and economic realities in a given society. Marx argued that religion is an illusion whose chief purpose is to provide reasons and excuses to keep society functioning just as it is. ... On the other hand, Weber's approach to religion is not reductionist in the way...
Conflict Theory: emphasizes the role of coercion and power, a person's or groups ability to exercise influence and control over others, in producing social order (Karl Marx) where fragmented groups compete for social and economic resources/domination/inequality (strife and friction) 3. ... Karl Marx: 1818-1883, explains capitalism and how inequality between groups stems from economic organization of society 4. ... Max Weber: 1864-1920 off of Marxism added that society had three basic dimensions: economical, political, and cultural (multidimensional) and that wars are fought because of a...
Or as Marx said, the difference is that in one society "man is seen as the aim of production", in the other "production is seen as the aim of man". ... He critiques the functionalists, Durkheim and "neo-Durkheimians" as having a "naive objective idealism"(p.9) saying that the way they interpret symbols and collective representations of societies only serves to reify the structure of that society. ... He goes on to quote Giambattista Vico in his rejection of positivism which influenced Durkheim. ... it's principles are, therefore, to be found within the modification of our own human mind."...
At the opening of the Lord of the Flies, a plane, transporting a group of boys from England is attacked and crashes in the jungle. Two boys, Ralph and Piggy, meet and make their way to the beach. Upon their arrival, they discover a conch shell near the water. Using the shell as a trumpet, Ralph s...
Although Treitschke and Weber both locate the state in the arena of the constant struggles between nations, Durkheim believed that "patriotism" would be replaced by "world patriotism" and Marx could not fathom the idea of "the people" aligning themselves with the "elites" above the "masses" of other nations, and promoted "universal emancipation." There have been various theories regarding nationalism in the present day, although it seems necessary within the confines of this essay to concentrate on three of the most prominent and interesting analyses. ... In a sense, a Marxist ideology can b...
