Abstract

This study is concerned with the nature and establishment of the ideal society from the standpoints of Durkheim's idealism and Marx's materialism. It presents Durkheim's moral individualism in its Kantian framework and compares it with Marx's humanistic individualism by reconstructing Marx's individualism in a Kantian structure through its logical relationship to Kantian ethics. ;For both Durkheim and Marx, the ideal society as the ultimate end of individualism is the one in which man is treated as an end-in-himself and is capable of self-realization. ;Due to his idealism, Durkheim believes that in order to change the world and to realize the ideal society we must start from the individual or the human nature. For this reason, he considers education as an essential factor in the realization of the ideal society. As a materialist, Marx believes in starting the change from the environment or the capitalist system of society. As the result, in contrast to Durkheim, he is in favor of revolution