Max Weber, Marx.

Questionnaire

1. What is the first historical act according to Marx?

The first historical act is the production of material life itself, he says that this is a fundamental condition of all history, the production of needs since the physiological needs and the creation of new.

2. What is the cause of class struggle?

Class struggle phenomenon is defined as an equality, this is since society is a double relationship (natural and social), society is a cooperation and that society determines the mode of production, of cooperation, or social stage, referred as productive force, men create specific forms of organization that are characterized by inequality, this means the different access that each social stage has to production.

3. What are relations of production according to Marx?

The relations men establish with the others when they use materials and technology for production purposes these relations of production compounds the economic structure of reality, in other words is the social relationship that people establishes in their economy.

4. What is the economic superstructure?

The superstructure has considerable autonomy in the economic base and it is influenced strongly by economic base, it has also to do with the society and the stages of social classes.

5. Explain the phrase: “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being determines their consciousness”.

It means that in the case of the socioeconomic relationship men are just put in a specific class (the antagonism between bourgeoisie and gravediggers for example), so they have to interact in a productive way to determine how conscious are they.

6. What are the proletariat and what is it opposing social class?

The bourgeois is the opposite social class that through history has been repressing the proletariat. The proletariat is one of the components in capitalism production, they are factory workers.

7. What are the 4 major successive modes of production in the history of mankind?

The Asiatic, the ancient, the feudal and the modern bourgeois form

8. What is the result of class struggle?

Revolution and confrontation, as the result of consciousness of men

9. Explain the following quotes from Marx:

a. "What the bourgeoisie produces above all are its own gravediggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable"[Communist Manifesto, 1848].

According to his theories, when class struggle occurs, through the time, always the repressed class wants the power of the major class; it is kind of repetitive process.

b. "From each according to ability: to each according to need" [Critique of the Gotha Programme 1875].

It is stated one of the principles of communism, it means, that money or capital should be distributed according to the needs of the workers, and the job is according to the abilities of the workers.

c. "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it." [11th Thesis on Feuerbach, 1888].

In the real life, story and philosophy is stated as their authors want, history is not going to be seen of the point of view of the less powerful class, the point here, is that we have the power to change the standards of society, economy and even the norms and morals.

10. What is a “social fact” according to Durkheim?

The subject matter of sociology, they are distinctive social characteristics which cannot be explained on biological or psychological level, they are external of an individual. They endure over time and are replaced. According to Durkheim: "every way of acting, fixed or not, capable of exercising on the individual an external constraint."

11. What are moral rules according to Durkheim?

They are guides and controls of conduct that become internalized in people, while they exist independent in individuals.

12. How do social phenomena arise according to Durkheim?

It arises when the individuals form a reality, a whole that can no longer be stated in terms of individual actors.

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