Marx and Weber1
Both Carl Marx and Max Weber wrote extensively on capitalism, its origins, and its future. Although, they agreed on a few very small points, for the main part, they strongly disagreed. Only through the analysis of their main differences in the two ideologies can a stronger and broader understanding of capitalism be reached. Marx believed strongly in what he called dialectical materialism, that is, that everything is material and that change takes place through the struggle between classes. He believed that men make their own history and transform their natural habitat to fit their changing needs. "Men begin to distinguish themselves from animals as soon as they begin to produce their means of subsistence. . . In producing their means of subsistence men indirectly produce their actually material life." Throughout history men transform nature to make it better serve their own purposes. According to Marx, all societies go through five stages of history and capitalism is simply a necessary stage between feudalism and the final step of communism. The way in which men create their social organization is based on modes of production. Changes within these societies occur because as the mode of production changes, it no
The division of labor led to the specialization of occupations and increased development of skills, which in turn caused an improvement in production. The working class becomes increasingly disgruntled which leads to a struggle between the lower and upper classes which, because history is dialectical and not static, will lead to a revolution that will cause capitalism to fall. This is not a problem when profits are high and the economy is growing. Instead, it formed a number of different classes that were related to each man's life style and calling. Weber is not so optimistic about the future of capitalism. The obvious next question for Weber was why was it the Protestant culture that led to capitalism. When he looked for differences in the capitalist cultures and non-capitalist cultures at the time he found that capitalism occurred at the same time as the Protestant reformation. The Puritans were able to chose how they wanted to live their live but now we must live as if we were Puritans locked within this iron cage. Nevertheless, as cities grew the number of merchants grew as well. Protestants also believed that their souls were predestined to go to either heaven or hell. Accordingly, the working class will take over the means of production and bring into being the final stage of society, that being communism. However, through the commodification of man and his labor, capitalism also causes the commodification of human relations.
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