Journal Entry 1
January 29, 2014
Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim are two philosophers who I thought would be interesting to pick for this topic. Karl Marx was a German philosopher, socialist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His work in economics laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labor and its relation to the capital. Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist, social psychologist, and philosopher. His work was concerned with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in modernity; which was an era in which traditional social and religious ties are no longer assumed. I think these two philosophers are perfect for this journal essay talking about the many different networks of social relations and how they all interact with each other.
In my opinion conflict and consensus forms the center of all human society. In the term of understanding human behavior and its constraints, nothing can be ore opposite then consensus and conflict theory. Consensus stresses what social groups have in common, while conflict stresses the fact that different groups have different access to power and wealth. It is hard to just pick conflict or consensus to discuss about because both of the philosophers have a different view on cultural and society. Karl Marx is known to be the father of the social conflict theory. His main concern was conflicts between different classes. Which leads back to the journal topic of having different networks of social relations. People may have a lot of socials relations but they usually are between the people of the same classes. Marx didn’t agree with people of different classes fighting and arguing over things but sadly this is how life works and it is something that is hard to change. Emile Durkheim looked at society in a different way then Marx did. He believed that members of society were in consensus with one another, and they all wanted the same goals and had the same attitudes. He relates