Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Mannheim & Freud

For Marx, consciousness is determined by the material conditions of daily life. Marx states that the production "of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, is at first directly interwoven" with the material relations of "daily life" (Tucker 154). The way in which we think about the world and the process by which we form opinion result from our interaction with the world via work, schooling and social interaction. Marx is attacking the earlier German philosophers--Hegel, for example, who imagines a "spirit" which "descends from heaven to earth" and which directs the actions, and ultimately the history, of human beings (Tucker 154). But Marx turns Hegel's equation on its head, arguing that "we ascend from earth to heaven" (Tucker 154). Thus consciousness, that is, knowledge, proceeds from human interaction with "real existence," and not the other way around.

Marx attempts to inscribe reality as the driving force in history. This position opposes the notion that "morality, religion, [and] metaphysics" propel history; in Marxist thought these forces tend to disto

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etic rationalism. Whereas both Weber and Marx are horrified by the notion of a concretized "calling" or a rigid "division of labor," Durkheim embraces the notion of a division of labor which is a natural means by which society can cohere and through which energies can be concentrated productively. Durkheim argues that the division of labor in society is a "law" that "arose long before [we] existed and which sweeps along in the same direction the whole of the living world" (Durkheim 3). Unlike Marx, who sees the division of labor as a divisive burden, Durkheim likens it to a moral imperative. Thus, for Durkheim, to achieve consciousness is "to learn one's role, to make oneself fit to fulfil one's function in a collective society" (Durkheim 4). The end of the division of labor is "social solidarity." Social solidarity is the central binding feature of a socially coherent consciousness/society. Consciousness, for Durkheim, is collective; it alone holds society together insofar as Durkheim understands society and social phenomena as a collection of "social facts." Social facts exist externally to society and are timeless, but most importantly, they are "endowed with [a] coercive power" that projects itself on social beings (Coser
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Approximate Word count = 2965
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)