Mills' Theory of Modern Society

Using the major sociological and historical traditions as a backdrop, the sociologist C. Wright Mills criticized and amplified some of the major arguments against trends in modern thought (Mills, 1959). In his work, Mills identified two major traditions that he believed were vital in the development of a modern, workable theory of society. The first was the tendency, particularly from the implications of the writings of Max Weber, to manipulate the evidence of history in such a way as to make initial theories "fit" into a preconceived notion of society (Mills, 1959, p. 22). The second, identified as an even larger block to progress in the identification and elaboration of sociological theory, was called the Grand Theory. In this, Mills likely meant that the primary goal of the social disciplines should be that of the identification and further development of a "systematic theory of the nature of man and society" (Mills, 1959, p. 23).

Within this paper, two contrasting materials will be analyzed along varying lines of criteria. The two works under review here, Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1958), and Emile Durkheim's The Division of Labor in Society (1984), both represent different approaches to similar, contemporaneous problems within sociological theory. This paper will begin with a summary of each book, and will then compare and contrast the books using a myriad of social, theoretical, and historical components.

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xist only insofar as one is able to explain the position within the confines of society (Weber, 1958, pp. 140-148; Baumer, 1977, p. 508). Therefore, the concepts of bureaucratization are likened to abstractions that have little to do with reality and more to do with the theoretical. Durkheim was a bit more amorphous on this concept but also made a more metaphorical construct out of the organic conception of society as a whole. In essence, then, functionality of something is not enough to establish basic truths about it. Instead, the causes of social facts are located in preceding social facts, and, in a similar way to Hegelian dialectics, form the internal and institutional contradiction in terms that eventually provides the synthesis of the process of rationalization (Skinner, 1985, p. 169). This is most evident in Durkheim's attitude towards mechanical solidarity, and the engendering characteristics associated with it (Durkheim, 1984, pp. 130-131). In both Durkheim and Weber, the real theoretical problem becomes not one of explanation, but one of focus within the entire social milieu. For Weber, the nature of man was located in the spirit of capitalism, at least the nature of man in Europe from the seventeenth century o

Category: Philosophy - M