Human Person

in
Society
Chapter 7
Nature of Society
Human collective is a condition in which human beings
existed long before without a set-up of social grouping called
society. This lesson presents the philosophy on the nature of
society.
Social Contract
Implicit agreement among members of the society to
cooperate to social benefits.
Socialist
• Thomas Hobbes or in some older texts, he was an English
philosopher, best known today for his work on political
philosophy.

• He developed some of the fundamentals of the individual; the

natural equality of all men; the artificial character of the
political order (which led to the later distinction between civil
society and the state).
Thomas Hobbes
• Hobbes held that since people are fearful and predatory they
must submit to the absolute supremacy of the state, in both
secular and religious matters, in order to live by reason and
gain lasting preservation.

• Argued for the existence of the state in order to create a

community of citizens free from the brutalities of the state of
nature-where every man is enemy to each one.

• Hobbes requires the people to surrender, completely or in

part, their rights to whoever or whatever for the protection of
everybody- “State”
• He was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as
one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and
commonly known as the “Father of Liberalism”.

• He emphasizes the state of equality, wherein all the power and

liberty are mutual yet it is not a state of license. Though man has
the absolute power to do what he wishes yet he has no license to
destroy or hurt anyone. This is because man is bound to obey the
law of nature. Since man its rational being, he is therefore guided
by the dictates of reasons in which natural rights of life liberty and
property are honored.
• He proposed the concept of Social Contract which is limited
the powers of the king and made the government answerable
to the people.

• There be binding laws that are supported by the general will

of the people.
Definition of
Society
According to sociologists, a society is a group of people with
common territory, interaction, and culture. Social Groups consist
of two or more people who interact and identify with one
another.
Characteristics of
Society
• The term has been derived in Latin “societas” which in turn
derived from noun “socious” which means ally or companion.
• The people occupy a portion of territory.
• The people show a distinct and continuous way of life, with a
comprehensive culture.
• The people perpetuate their group by sexual reproduction.
• The people think of themselves as distinct culture or groups
consisting loyalties, an esprit de corps.
• The individual, under certain circumstances, sacrifices himself
for the good of the groups.
Forms of Society
1. Hunting and Gathering
These societies survive by hunting and gathering edible
plants. Until about 12,000 years ago. All societies were hunting
and gathering societies.
2. Horticultural Societies
In a horticultural society, hand tools are used to tend
crops. The first horticultural societies sprang up about 10,000-
12,000 years ago in the most fertile areas of the Middle East,
Latin America, and Asia. The tools they used were simple: sticks
or hoe like instruments used to punch holes in the ground so
that crops could be planted.
3. Pastoral Societies
A pastoral society relies on the domestication and
breeding of animals for food. Some geographic regions, such as
the desert regions of North Africa, cannot support crops, so
these societies learned how to domesticate and breed animals.
4. Agricultural Societies
The invention of the plow during the horticultural and
pastoral societies is considered the second social revolution, and
it led to the establishment of agricultural societies
approximately five thousand to six thousand years ago.
The development of agricultural societies
followed this general sequence:
• Animals are used to pull plows.
• Larger areas of land can then be cultivated.
• As the soil is aerated during plowing, it yields more crops for
longer periods of time.
• Productivity increases, and as long as there is plenty of food,
people do not have to wander.
• Towns form, and then cities.
• As crop yields are high, it is no longer necessary for every
member of the society to engage in excessive farming, so
some people begin developing other skills. Job specialization
increases.
• Fewer people are directly involved with the time production of
food, and the economy becomes more complex.
Roots of Gender Inequality
• As people moved toward domesticating animals and using
them to do work, males tended to dominate more of the
workforce, since physical strength was necessary to control
animals. Since then, more prestige has been accorded to
traditionally male jobs than to traditionally female jobs, and
hence, to males more than to females.
5. Industrial Societies
An industrial society uses advanced sources of energy,
rather than humans and animals, to run large machinery,
industrialization began in the mid-1700s, when the steam
engine was first used in Great Britain as a means of running
other machines. By the twentieth century, industrialization
societies had changed dramatically:
People and goods traversed much longer distances because of
innovations in transportation, such as the train and the
steamships.

Rural areas lost population because more and more people

were engaged in factory work and had to move to the cities.

Fewer people were needed in agriculture, and societies

became urbanized, which means that the majority of the
population lived within commuting distance of a major city.

Suburbs grew up around cities to prove city-dwellers with

alternative places to live.
Gemeinschaft and
Gesellschaft
Ferdinand Tonnies, German sociologists, divided societies into two
large categories.
Gemeinschaft societies
Consist primarily of villages in which everyone knows everyone
else. Relationships are life-long and based on kinship.
Gesellschaft societies
are modernized. People have little in common with one another,
and relationships are short term and based on self-interest, with
little concern for the well-being of others.
6. Post-industrial Societies
The Industrial Revolution transformed Western societies
in many unexpected ways. All the machines and inventions for
producing and transporting goods reduced the need for human
labor so much that the economy transformed again, from an
industrial to a post-industrial economy.
There are three major Characteristics
of a post-industrial society:
• Focus on ideas: tangible goods no longer drive the economy.
• Need for higher education: factory work does not require
advanced training, and the new focus on information and
technology means that people must pursue greater education.
• Shift in workplace from cities to home: new communications
technology allows work to be performed form a variety of
locations.
7. Mass Society
An industrialized society grows and developed, they
become increasingly different from their less industrialized
counterparts. As they become larger, they evolve into large,
impersonal mass societies. In a mass society, individual
achievement is valued over kinship ties, and people often feel
isolated from one another. Personal incomes are generally high,
and there is great diversity among people.
8. Virtual Society
Virtual society is also called as virtual community. It is a
social network of individuals who interact through specific social
media potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries
in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most
pervasive virtual communities are online communities operating
under social networking services.