Philosophy Paper - Sociologists Durkheim and Weber

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Sociological Perspectives Midterm #2 Answer both questions. Each answer should be 3 to 5 typed double-spaced pages (12 point font). Use parenthetical citation in the text to indicate sources used and relevant page numbers, and include a bibliography at the end. 1. Max Weber and Emile Durkheim both see a relationship between the spread of Protestant belief systems in the West and central tendencies in the shift from traditional to modern society. Compare Weber’s theory of the Protestant ethic and the development of capitalism with Durkheim’s analysis of the relationship between Protestantism and increased rates of suicide. What do these arguments reveal about the central features of modernity for each theorist? 2. Weber and Durkheim both perceive a progressive weakening of religious authority in the modern West. Compare and contrast Weber’s theories of the “disenchantment of the world” and the “iron cage” of rationality with Durkheim’s arguments concerning the shift from mechanical to organic solidarity. What features of the modern world serve to undermine religious worldviews and affiliation? Is meaning and/or moral order possible in the absence of religious regulation?
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Attached.

Perception on Modernity – Outline
Thesis Statement: Modernism has been as a result of very many independent factors. However,
the shift from one religious system (Catholicism) to another (Protestantism) helped instigate a
sophisticated and yet systematic change from a traditional way of life to a more complex one.
I.
II.

Introduction
General Understanding

III.

Autonomy and Modernity

IV.

Individualism

V.

Freedom of Information


Modernity 1

PERCEPTION ON MODERNITY

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Modernity 2
Perception on Modernity
Introduction
The emergence, break away from the mainstream Catholicism, and spread of
Protestantism was a critical point in the general shift in belief and the emergence of theological
thought. Protestant as its name is derived from the verb “protest,” was a movement ignited by a
few intellectuals who felt that Catholic had, in its principles, overstepped its religious
boundaries. Hence, they intended to create a different way of worship and lifestyle, which was
different from what the Catholic Church prescribed in its philosophy. Weber and Durkheim
regarded the spread of the protestant belief in the west as the onset of a different way of life and
thought that was brought about and supported by the protestant belief system. They both choose
to address Protestantism from different perspectives but found commonality in the manner in
which protestant belief influenced modernism. Weber’s theory of Protestant ethic and the rise of
capitalism and Durkheim’s analysis of Protestantism and its cause in increase in suicide cases
offer different but yet similar ideals of modernism. Modernism has been as a result of very many
independent factors. However, the shift from one religious system (Catholicism) to another
(Protestantism) helped instigate a sophisticated and yet systematic change from a traditional way
of life to a more complex one.
General Understanding
Durkheim tackles the issue of suicide between a predominantly Catholic region and
protestant regions and tries to discern what between these two religious facets, differentiates the
suicide rates. Durkheim examines the two religions from a layman perspective and chooses
predominantly Catholic countries and protestant countries to identify individual aspects that may
be the cause of such a huge difference (Durkheim 1966, p. 161). Weber, on the other hand,

Modernity 3
tackles capitalism in the context of Protestant ethic in trying to discern what individual elements
influence performance and growth of free markets in protestant communities (Weber 1996, p.
192). In commonality, the two analysis identify individual factors that differentiated protestant
and catholic communities and which are designated as the main features of modernity. These
features are not, in themselves, modernity, but a reflection and a sign of the shift from the
traditional way of life to the current modern lifestyle.
Autonomy and Modernity
Durkheim, in his analysis, identified free will, in the emergence of Protestantism, as the
primary factor that led to an increase in suicide rates within the predominantly protestant
community. Different from Catholic and Judaism, protestant belief empowered its followers to a
freedom that al...


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