Idealism and Materialism as General Approaches to Understanding Society

Idealism and Materialism as General Approaches to Understanding Society Both Karl Marx and Max Weber had very different ways of looking at the societies economic system. Marx's strong beliefs in what would make society thrive were in the materialism approach and Weber's was in the idealism approach. Karl Marx believed that the majority of societies problems came from the industrial capitalist system; this is the system that was making the rich, richer and the poor, …

…paid off with wealth, which was not shared with the poor, who in their eyes were what God rejected. Weber believed that it was because of this religion that the industrial-capitalist revolution started. In sum, Weber believed that all wealth came down to ones ambition for personal achievement this was generally through religion, where as Marx felt that industrial- capitalism was responsible for the poverty and social problems that societies were being faced with (p.94).