The Human Person in the Society
a being that is naturally destined to relate with others in society |
to fully actualize himself/herself fully, it is more advantageous for them to live harmoniously with others as they live in the midst of society |
Self-actualization : process of immersing oneself with others to make each one better, happy and contented members of society |
Society : individuals' voluntary association for common ends, especially an organized group working together or periodically meeting because of common interests, beliefs, or profession |
Lund, 1979
“A society is a group of interacting individuals sharing the same territory and participating in a culture,’ and thus, “a society is any organisation that enables people to carry on a common life” |
Gugma sa Isig ka Tawo – ”love for others”
This concept is understood in connection with pagtambayayong(peace), pagpa-ambit(share), and pagsinabtanay(mutual understanding). |
Fisherfolks live in a close-knit community where everybody knows everybody. They are a family of people whose common goal is to live life side by side with the sea. With the presence of that common goal, the spirit of oneness would eventually develop which eventually leads to the development of love for others (Fernandez, 2017). |
“naa ang gugma ug kalinaw sa pakig-ambit sa mga grasya nga nadawat” (there is love and peace in the act sharing of the graces one received) -Lilia Silongan, 2015 |
“Being for others” is also expressed in pagsinabtanay |
pagtambayayong and pagpa-ambit are concrete expressions of being for others |
Abandoned
Abandoned to be Free |
Abandonment--the existential condition of being thrown into one’s existence with nothing to cling to as guide. The path of life is not ready-made; it is for each of us to create |
We are abandoned in the sense that we did not choose to be free. Freedom is a human condition we are thrown into. |
Kant - Freedom
Freedom is Doing What is Good as a Matter of Duty |
Freedom is not an act of doing anything one wants. Getting what one wants is not freedom; it is slavery to one’s appetite or emotion. |
Freedom does not react; it commands |
Freedom is not also doing things because they are beneficial; it is doing things because they ought to be done. |
Freedom does not mean doing anything one wants. Freedom is doing what a human person ought to do. |
Only acts done out of a sense of duty, according to Kant, are free. They are free because they are willed as universal values and not out of any personal interests. |
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Plato's Concept of Society
societies are invariably formed for a particular purpose |
human beings gather into communities for the mutual achievement of their common goals |
people can work more efficiently if they specialize in the practice of a specific craft |
separation of functions and specialization of labor are the keys to establishing a worthwhile society |
producing class ( farmers, merchants and laborers/workers ) |
soldier class (warriors) |
ruling class (philosopher-thinkers as well as rulers and kings who are selected to lead the entire society) |
Aristotle
“Man is a social animal.” |
He who lives without society is either a beast or God” (Jowett, 1885). |
Every human being is presumably social and always has the penchant for relating to others. As humans connect with each other, such relation is accompanied by responsibility |
“Existence precedes essence.” - Sartre
Existence refers to the totality of how a person has lived his or her life |
Essence refers to the nature or the whatness of a human person |
a human person does not a have a pre -given nature, meaning, purpose, and value |
there is no universal human nature, meaning, purpose, and value |
that individual human nature, meaning, purpose, and value are created by each person depending on how he or she lives his or her life |
In short, life is what each and every person makes of it. |
Freedom in Despair
We are in despair when we have no control over the realization of our plans in life. |
we can rely only on those things within our power and on the sum of probabilities that made our actions possible - Sartre |
We can plan and decide to realize our plan, but its realization depends on an ensemble of possibilities. And this is the condition under which we live our freedom. |
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Auguste Comte's 3 Stages of Global Society
Theological stage |
people viewed the world and the events in that world as a direct expression of the will of various gods |
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supernatural or divine explanations to understand society and the world |
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Supreme Being = "Greater than themselves" |
Metaphysical Stage |
people viewed the world and events as natural reflections of human tendencies |
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People in this stage still believed in divine powers or gods, but they believed that these beings were more abstract and less directly involved in what happens daily |
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problems in the world were due to defects in humanity |
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astrology (societies still believed in some supernatural or magical aspects of life, but they were also rooted in the concrete parts of life) |
Positive Stage |
the mind stops searching for the causes of phenomena and realizes that laws exist to govern human behavior, which can be explained using reason and observation, both of which are used to study the social world |
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science, rational thought, and empirical laws |
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sociology is "the science that [comes] after all the others; and as the final science, it must assume the task of coordinating the development of the whole of knowledge because it organizes all of human behaviour“. |
When one thinks of society, the idea cannot stand without humans being involved since we are, after all, social beings (human beings) |
Sartre - Life in Action
we are what our actions are. Our actions define who we are. There is no life outside action |
A human person, according to Sartre, “is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is.” |
“[T]here is no love apart from the deeds of love; no potentiality of love other than that which is manifested in loving; there is no genius other than that which is expressed in works of art.” |
Sisyphus’s endless pushing of the rock may appear meaningless, but it is not the top of the mountain that is important for him. It is the pushing of the rock; it is his engagement and commitment with life that matters. It is by endlessly pushing the rock that Sisyphus defines his life. |
it is through our actions, commitments, and projects that we define our lives |
Choosing to live irresponsibly is to deny one’s freedom, a freedom which defines his or her own existence |
To be human is to be free and to be free is to be responsible, |
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