Lesson 7: The Human Person in Society

sites may disconnect users rather than connect people (Garcia 2014). The lesson?
Do not limit interactions online; establish physical interaction with friends and
family beyond the digital world where one can truly find love, acceptance, and
self-esteem.

If Soren Kierkegaard is correct, rather than being ourselves, we tend to

conform to an image or idea associated with being a certain type of person. For
example, if we create the people we want to be or the ideal versions of ourselves in
our Facebook profiles, then we conform to a pattern. To the extent that we do see
others and ourselves with generalizations; not recognizing existing individuals.
For Kieregaard, we are reduced to mediocrity. Our modern age remains an era of
increasing dullness; conformity, and lack of genuine individuals (Soccio 2007).
Life was much simpler before. One begins to comprehend how technology
evolved. From medieval crafts to the Industrial Revolution that was dominated
by factors such as revolutionary discoveries in natural sciences, detection, and
extraction of energy resources, invention of mechanical devices, availability of
investment capital, improved means of transportation, communication, and
growing interest taken by scientific and commercial circles in technology and
engineering.

Philosophically, our totality, wholeness, or"complete life,"relies on our social

relations. Aristotle said that friends are two bodies with one soul. Mutual sharing,
acceptance, and sincerity that Carol encouraged are akin with the outlooks of
Karol Wojtyla's We-You/I-You and Martin Buber's I-thou relations.

For Buber, the human person attains fulfillment in the realm of the
interpersonal, in meeting the other, through a genuine dialog. For Wojtyla,
through participation, we share in the humanness of others. Aristotle, Buber, and
Wojtyla stress that the concreteness of our experiences and existence is directly
linked to our experience with others. Thus, if one has meaningful relationships,
aside from enjoying one's blessings, then, as Aristotle concurs, he is truly the one
who may rightly be termed happy.

7.2 Compare Different Forms of Societies and Individualities (Agrarian,

Industrial, and Virtual)

A. Medieval Period (500-1500 CE)

Some historians say that the Middle Ages began in AD 476 when the
barbarian Odoacer overthrew Emperor Romulus Augustulus, ending the
Western Roman Empire; still others say about AD 500 or even later. Historians
say that the Middle Ages ended with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, with
the discovery of America in 1492; or with the beginning of the Reformation
in 1517.
German barbarians sacked and pillaged the declining Western Roman
Empire. The invaders, however, lacked the knowledge and skills to carry on

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