Students of sociology first encounter an analysis of
relations among social structures in the introductory sociology class where
they learn that social realities are the products of social structures. And,
throughout their academic journey in the acquisition of knowledge in the
discipline, sociology students are expected to develop a deep understanding of
the nature of the relationships among social structures and the consequences of
such relationships to human realities. In this endeavor, students learn the
causal relations of substructures and superstructures proffered by Karl Max (deterministic
economic infrastructure) and Max Weber (deterministic ideological
infrastructure). In both economic and ideological determinisms, one particular
social structure is determinant of all other social structures and human social
realities. In this study, the ideas of both Marx and Weber are critiqued for
causal reductionism or the fallacy of a single cause which is antithetical to
sociological reasoning of multi-factor causality. For a better understanding of
causal relations among social structures and social realities, this study
offers the Multi-Institutional Substructure-Superstructure Model (MISSMOD) as a
more comprehensive causal explanation of society’s infrastructure and superstructure
relations, which nullifies the distinction (claimed by Marx and Weber) between
the infrastructure and the superstructure.
References
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