Compare and Contrast Capitalism and Industrialization - Essay Example

From this study it is clear that Weber, on religion, is of the view that religion has had a significant impact on how the world functions. This is terms of materialism and the spirit of capitalism that affected the world during their time. Catholicism blaming Protestantism for the secularization it brought and the materialism it brought with it. According to Weber, most of the contemporary world is rooted in the process of religion and the force behind it, is that of material interests and not ideas.

In religion, individuals pursue their own interests while religious leaders are only a catalyst towards achieving these goals. Max Weber believes that religion only provides tools that are responsible for social change and stability. For example, religious leaders such as priests provide knowledge and fixed doctrine which are used other people in the society to benefit themselves.This paper stresses that Durkheim, like Marx and Weber, is of the view that religion is crucial to the life of an individual and groups.

He begins by a defining what religion is: “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things” which is different from that of Marx in almost every aspect. Unlike Weber, Durkheim is of the view that religion can be used to reflect how the world is structured (systems). By using religion in this way, he proves that religion forms the epistemological basis of human experience.. Capitalism Capitalism and religion have an interdependent relationship. This is according to Max Weber who observes that some religions allow for the rise of capitalism.

Weber came up with the term protestant work ethic to show how much Protestants dedicated themselves to work. He ended up concluding that Protestants in Christianity were the source of all capitalism in the western world. This is because; in the East where Christianity is not dominant, only communism was dominant. Marx also believes that capitalism is based on ideas, conceptions and habits that only support pursuit of economic gain. In addition, religion regulates or eradicates greed, and laziness which would lead to increased productivity with minimum effort.

Unlike Weber, Marx does not share the same sentiments. Marx believed that capitalism, one of the key features found in the western societies, was unstable to the core, as opposed to communism. He views it as a means to self destruction and that any society embracing it will come to doom on due time. As a result of his opinions, the term creative destruction was coined. Karl Marx believed that, at the end of it all, the world would embrace communism and that everyone would live a middle class life.

Also, he viewed capitalism as a means by which human life would be degraded. This is through having two classes where one owns the means by which the second one lives. As a result, quality of human life is shredded down to the extent where people sell themselves in the form of commodities in order to make a living. From this, Marx despised the capitalist world due to exploitation of workers by employers. Capitalism, to Emile Durkheim, was an entity that fully depended on and required a new definition of individualism and socialism. He