Social Thought and Social Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Social Thought and Social Change - Essay Example6). For Enlightened thinkers, the desirable solicitude and final destination they aim for is a place where everyone lives in a perfectly happy existence, free from religious control, aristocratic discrimination and monarchical subjection (Bury 1920, p. 6). This idea is oftentimes criticised by modern thinkers as a naive belief in mans capability for achieving perfection (Israel 2001, p. 3). However, Israel (2001, pp. 3-4) argues that Enlightenment gain breathed a vivid awareness of the great difficulty of spreading toleration, curbing religious fanaticism, and otherwise ameliorating human organization, orderliness, and the general state of health. Concurrently, even out though famous Enlightened thinkers have opposing ideas about how to go about achieving progress, it cannot be denied that they share the same principles and morals. For instance, while Voltaire did not believe in the notion of equality and moved to educate and enligh ten aristocrats into bettering the world, Rousseau detested them and lobbied for equality through with(predicate) with(predicate) revolution. However, both detested the Church and absolute monarchy and sought to change the term quo (Brians 2000). It is unquestionable, then, that the Enlightenmentthough ripe with strife and conflicting ideasmoved towards the same destination and that is, the achievement of progress through positive societal changes. The Enlightenment symbolizes cultures actual forward movement towards a desirable direction. It is progress personified. Both supporters and critics of the Enlightenment and even opposing Enlightened thinkers show that its end-all and be-all is achieving progress through reasonprogress that aims to create a better society at a time when religious tyranny and absolute monarchy and aristocracy ruled the world. II. Stages of fib and Revolution Karl Marx views human history as a series of stages wherein man struggles to deal with and con trol the economic benefits of the resources of the world in order to achieve advocator and position (Weiner 2008, p. 42 Cohen 2004, p. 23). The growth of human power is the central attend to of history. The need for that growth explains why there is history (p. 23). Hence, Marx evaluates history as the process of mans struggle for control over the developing system of production (Shaw 1978, p. 152). Marx (1904, p. 28) states the first stage of history as primitive communism where goods and dimension are shared and the means of production include hunting and gathering the second stage is slave society where a class society found on private ownership is established (pp. 285-286) third is feudalism (p. 216) fourth is capitalism (p. 19) fifth is socialism (p. 10) and the final stage is pure communism exhibited through a classless society and the abolition of private ownership (Marx and Engels 1858 qtd. in Schumaker 2010, p. 46). This is a history of class struggle, as new forms of s ociety arise conquer to the new forms of production when the new classes win power (McCarthy 1995). It can be seen here how each historical stage moves on to the next only with the devastation of a socio-economic system through the uprising of the lower classes. For instance, feudalism evolved into capitalism after the landed aristocrats was challenged by craftsmen and merchants (Bowen 2011).