Marx Vs Durkheim

The rise of Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim’s ideologies came when industrialization was on the rise in Europe. They both dissected this role of industrialization in the rising economic system of capitalism. They examined the demands of division of labor and what this subsequently did for the existing nature of society. Marx and Durkheim had differing opinions of the importance of the division of labor and rise of capitalism and how this either divided society or aided to its collective nature. This essay will take a look at each of the sociologist’s main differing ideologies, then we will bring it back together with their collective views of alienation and anomie.
Karl Marx is a conflict theorist. His work focuses on what conflicts arise in
According to Marx, capitalism and division of labor can cause alienation, this stems from “material conditions in which we apply our essential productive capacities (Appelrouth and Edles 2016:47)”. There are four different types of alienation explained in Marx’s “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844”. The first being, the worker being alienated for what they are producing. The proletariat would not be able to afford what they are producing because it is only affordable to the bourgeoisie. The second type of alienation is the worker being alienated from the act of working itself. This is because the worker is doing very specific and minor acts within the grand scheme of production; this leads to the third type of alienation, which is the worker being alienated from being a “species being”. This is the lack of man living up to their full potential, isolating them from their own body and nature itself. The last form of alienation is alienating the worker and other workers. According to Marx this is a way to keep the proletariat oppressed and uneducated, never achieving “class consciousness” (Marx 1844:49-55). This source of alienation creates widespread devastation across the working class. The Proletariat is barely making enough to live a decent life, while the bourgeoisie is living in complete excess. This concept of alienation is very similar to Durkheim’s concept of anomie. He specifically looked at this in his work “Suicide”. This division of labor can lead to intense feelings of anomie. This comes in the form of lack of integration among society and lack of moral regulation. This intense isolation, or alienation, can leave one feeling totally alone, separated from their communities and their families. Durkheim asserts that a consequence of this is ammonic