POLITICS AND

SOCIETY
LEARNING OUTCOMES

• After studying this chapter, the students should be able

to:
1. explain of politics;
2. determine the relationship of ethics and politics;
3. examine the political dimension of becoming human; and
4. assess the importance of citizenship education.
ETHICS AND POLITICS

• Politics is derived from the Greek word polis or city-state

which means a political community whose membership
is restricted mainly to its citizens.
• According to Aristotle, he described human being as
political animals. He meant that every human being is
always born into a community that requires interaction
with fellow human agents to achieve personal
fulfillment.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN ONE SAYS THERE
IS A CLOSE CONNECTION BETWEEN ETHICS
AND POLITICS?
• Ethics is taken up in school to help students understand
themselves and to guide them how to live their lives
well.
• A well-lived life is a life fulfilled. Each fulfillment is an
outcome of cooperative activities with other human
persons.
• To achieve and sustain this cooperation is the main task
of politics.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN ONE SAYS THERE
IS A CLOSE CONNECTION BETWEEN ETHICS
AND POLITICS?
• When Aristotle described human as being political, he
underscored a fundamental aspect of human
experience: the fullness of life depends on an
individual’s association and cooperation with others.
• Attaining happiness is a group effort and is never a
private enterprise.
• Being political means connecting with others in pursuit
of solidarity.
SOLIDARITY

• Solidarity means union or fellowship arising from

common responsibilities and interests, as between
members of a group or between classes, peoples, etc.
• Inclusion means the practice or policy of providing equal
access to opportunities and resources for people who
might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as
those who have physical or mental disabilities and
members of other minority groups.
SOLIDARITY

• Discrimination means the disqualification of an

individual from exercising his or her rights for failing
to meet some imposed criteria.
• For example, the prohibition against the right of
women to vote in the 1930s.
SOLIDARITY

• Participation is the consequence of inclusion.

• For example, Gawad Kalinga or GK is an advocacy
organization initially established to offer socialized
housing programs for depressed communities.
• This project help by transforming individuals from
passive recipients of charity to active participants of the
enterprise.
SOLIDARITY

• A space is inclusive of different people and is

conducive to empowerment if each individual at
the outset is recognized worthy of respect and is
identified capable of transforming his or her
situation.
• For example, from disabled person to person with
disability to differently-abled persons
POLITICAL SYSTEM

• Government plays a significant role in politics. However, it is

wrong to think that all political tasks belong to the
government alone.
• A political system in which politics is monopolized by the
government is called dictatorial or tyrannical. Citizens do
not enjoy their full civil and political liberties, instead the
government arrogates power unto itself to perpetuate its
rule.
• For example, North Korea
POLITICAL SYSTEM

• A government to be taken over a few

individuals whose only interest is to advance
their own agenda is called aristocracy.
• The consequence of such control to the socio-
political life of the citizens can be as disastrous
as that of the tyrannical rule.
POLITICAL SYSTEM

• History shows that citizens have greater

chances of attaining well-being when people
are in charge of their own affairs, when people
organize their lives according to their own will
which is called self-rule or sovereignty.
ETHICS AND SOCIETY

• Society is the domain of politics and the center

stage of a citizen’s political life.
• It is important for a given society to experience
the freedom of attaining his or her fulfillment that
allows each citizen to experience the freedom of
attaining his or her fulfillment whether as an
individual or as a member of a larger community.
ETHICS AND SOCIETY

• The political climate in a given society is as

good as the amount of freedom its citizens
enjoy such as democracy.
• Freedom is the conditio sine qua non or the
condition without which politics is
impossible.
ETHICS AND SOCIETY

• George Wilhelm Friedric Hegel maintained

that one needs to be grafted in a political
community to experience freedom.
• He said that membership in such community
is not an impediment to freedom but leads to
the perfection of freedom.
ETHICS AND SOCIETY

• Inclusion in a society entails certain

restrictions, which may be construed as
limitations of one’s freedom.
• Laws or ethical obligations to the other
member of the community may impose these
restrictions.
ETHICS AND SOCIETY

• According to Hegel, these limitations or

restriction must be reasonable.
• For example, speed limit enforced along
expressways and class schedules
HOW DOES ONE BECOME A CITIZEN OF A
SOCIETY?

• To better understand the relationship

between citizenship and society, we need
to explore the definition of society as a
political organization and as an ethical
domain.
HOW DOES ONE BECOME A CITIZEN OF A
SOCIETY?
• Society as a political organization, is a
system characterized by formal structures
such as institutions, laws, and other
regulations, shared processes and practices.
• Its member possess a constitutionally
guaranteed identity.
HOW DOES ONE BECOME A CITIZEN OF A
SOCIETY?

• For example, OFW working in Hong Kong,

Saudi Arabia or Singapore and Rohingya
crisis
HOW DOES ONE BECOME A CITIZEN OF A
SOCIETY?

• Society as a ethical domain, is to

recognize and accept that all people are
bound by a shared humanity despite
differences in cultures and ethnicities
HOW DOES ONE BECOME A CITIZEN OF A
SOCIETY?
• Martha Nussbaum said one’s sense of humanity
can be taught, enhanced and regained through
exposure to the humanities like the arts,
literature, and philosophy.
• These are the very disciplines that comprise what
in general may be described as citizenship
education.
HOW DOES ONE BECOME A CITIZEN OF A
SOCIETY?

• Ethics is also informed by citizenship

education as it induces the cultivation of
the students’ creative, imaginative, and
critical abilities, the same abilities needed
to be fully human and humane.
CONCLUSION

• The world today is indeed a complex frontier. The

human society has evolved into an environment
marked by conflicts and various forms of
alienation. The task of being political has never
been as urgent as before. Everyone is compelled
to be ethically minded and to be more responsive
and responsible citizens of our localities and of the
world.