SOC101h_wk1_assn_tward_10/07/2018First we have Karl Marx, was a 19th contributor to sociology. Marx believed society was broken into classes and he also believed that it had an impact a person’s place in society.
I believe this still holds true in today’s society, all around the world. People today are put into so many different classes based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Marx’s writings inspired people that would later lead communists’ revolutions around the globe (McGraw-Hill, 2017). Even in the 21st century his beliefs still hold true. People are discriminated against based on these basic classes and so much more. Karl was truly a pioneer in and one of the early thinkers of sociology.Next we have Talcott Parsons, a 21st century, Harvard University sociologist.
Parsons had a hand in the development of the functionalist theory (McGraw-Hill, 2017). He believed society was a big network of connected parts and that each part maintained the system as a whole (McGraw-Hill, 2017). Again Parson’s beliefs still hold true today. I think this is kind of like cause and effect. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (Newton’s Law). How we interact with everyone around us has an effect on their. Lives and in turn has an effect on society as a whole.
These two sociologist are actually not that far apart in there thinking. Certain races are made to feel inferior to other races. In Marx’s thinking, Groups of people are lumped together with radicals just because they have the same religion. Women have been brought up to feel inferior to men and in certain parts of the world this is still the case. Also homosexuals are degraded and belittled by society every day because as a society people believe that everyone should be heterosexual, that it is the right way.
Which brings us back to Parson’s beliefs, when we follow these different beliefs in society and degrade and belittle other human beings, because they are not like us, we have a negative impact on society as a whole. These two sociologists way of thinking is a part of our everyday lives and we can still learn so much from them.
