Karl Marx and Max Weber, as well as their theories, share many similarities. Both were German sociologists whose work spanned decades and whose influence extended even further. Marx and Weber also had much to say about the modern world economy, both delved into religion, and above all each of these men sought to answer the question of how civilization got to where it is and where it would go from there. The central tenet of most of Marx's most prolific writings is work, and the power and relationships that arise from it. Marx believes that all people act for selfish and material reasons. Man acts only in his personal interest. He works because he needs a wage to support himself and his family, not for a larger purpose, capitalists exploit labor because it is the only way to compete in a capitalist market, it's not their fault, but the system's. This is further supported by his ideas of labor alienation. Marx defines it thus: The alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labor becomes an object, an external existence, but that it exists outside him, independently, as something foreign to him, and that it becomes a its power. just by facing it; it means that the life he has given to the object stands before him as something hostile and alien. (Marx, Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 72) One of Marx's ideas is that workers work harder and are happier; when they work towards something they can call their own. In the past a craftsman would work on a good from start to finish, it would just be the product of his work. When the industrial revolution began, everything changed; now workers have completed only a small step in the process, co...... half of the document ......wer and Authority November 21, 2011. Lecture.Marx, Karl. "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844." The Marx-Engels Reader. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. 2nd. New York: WW, Norton & Company, 1978. 66-125. Print.Marx, Karl. “The coming upheaval.” The Marx-Engels Reader. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978. Olsen, Eric. "Weber's Essay." Wise. 2011. Document. Weber, Max. “Class, Status, Party.” Sociology essays. Trans. H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills. New York: Oxford University Press, 1946. 180-195. Press.-. The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Trans. Talcott Parsons. New York: Dover Publications, 1958. Print.Weber, Max. “The Types of Legitimate Domination.” Weber, Max. The theory of social and economic organization. Ed. Talcott Parsons. Trans. AM Henderson and Talcott Parsons. New York: The Free Press, 1947. Print.