Technological College of San Felipe Inc.

Fuentecilla Street Brgy. Amagna, San Felipe Zambales

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

LEARNING MODULE

Disciplines and Ideas in the

Social Sciences

First Quarter
Week 1-9

Arianne Ross F. Leron

Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 1

 Table of Contents

First Quarter

Week 1 and 2
How Social Is Science, and How Scientific Is Social?................................3

Week 3 and 4
Perspectives: How Do Ideas of and about Society Shape the Way We Look at
the World?.…………………………....................................................
……...........7

Week 5 and 6
Our very interactions shape us: How do everyday life and relationships
mold our realities?....................................……………………………………...11

Week 7
Society and Us: How do we make sense of ourselves and the of the world
around us?..............................................……………………………………....14

Week 8 and 9
Society and Us: How do we make sense of ourselves and the of the world
around us?..............................................……………………………………...16

References……………………………………………………………………………..17

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 2

Week 1 and 2: How Social Is Science, and How Scientific Is Social?

Learning Competencies:
 Differentiate the nature and functions of Social Science disciplines
with the natural sciences and humanities.

Introduction:
In our everyday life, routine, or regimen, seldom do we think about the
“patterns” of our usual behavior: why we do certain things the way we do, why
we associate with a particular group of people, why we follow a specific belief or
conviction, why we are probihited to do certain acts, why we speak a particular
language, why we remember certain acts and forget others, etc. all these affect
our everyday decisions. These are not some ramdoms but are shaped by the
structures of our living conditions: geographic area, social status, historical
exprience, economic forces, poitical institutions, ethnic grouping, religius
affiliation, power relations, etc.

How is society different from nature?

Nature conjures an image of random and unstructured forces that shape
given area. These forces and events, while unrestrained and ever dynamic.
Usually follow a general pattern, law or process ever since the world existed.
These patterns and laws follow an amazing uniformity, which enables a
researcher to trace back what happened in the past by looking at what is
happening in the present.
The Science of nature or the natural sciences have developed sophisticated
ways on how to investigate nature, how to learn more about it, discover its
secret, and identify underlying universal laws. Science believes that the truth
has always been existing and it only needs to be discovered and revealed
through a well-defined system of understanding.
Society, on the other hand, is a contrast to the preceding imagery of nature.
Society is organized, deliberately structured and formalized, and bound by the
rules drafted and implemented by the people. Max Weber in particular had
introduced the idea of “rationalization” which means that inside society,
human actions, behaviors, patterns of activities, and decision making were
done in a more efficient, legal and logical manner.
Social science is the science of studying society and over the past more than
100 years, it has also developed various modes of enagaging the notion of
society and how to truly grasp its enigma.

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 3

What is modernity? What was its role in the development of Social
Science?
Understanding Modernity and Social Science
Modernity is a concept that deals not only with the shift in the physical and
material conditions of society but also with the mental and behavioral shifts
among people.
Nevertheless, modernity is not only about society developing and progressing
economically and technologically and ushering dramatic changes in the
population. There are also the underlying philosophy, behavior, and values
that guide institutions, modes of thinking, and social relations.
Fuctionalism, a concept that was borne out of this concption of society,
suggests that cultural and social institutions are created to perform certain
functions that in the end contribute to the overall health of society, thus
preserving itself to posterity. Overall harmony is paramount because it is so
difficult to maintain peace and cooperation when everybody is a stranger in a
big city; otherwise, the whole society will collapse. People need to be cohesive
and interdependent to the point that no one can survive without depending on
anothers person’s activity, they converge because they need one another and
they benefit from each other’s work or production.
This is the stark contrast to the concept of a community that is traditional in
character and smaller in scope. In Durkheim’s term, this has mechanical
solidarity, which means the basis of people’s cooperation and scoiety’s
integration is due to similar experiences in work, lifeways, values, and
worldviews. This means that the reason why people feel connected with each
other is because they do the same type of activities, live in the same area, and
experience the same things.
Bringing Positivism to the Fore of Social Science
Social Sciences use the same philosophy that guided the development of
the natural sciences. “Positivism, a philosophy developed in Europe about a
century before the Industrial Revoution. Positivism believes that scientific
thought is a superior knowledge than superstition and religion, and it is
achieved through an objective and empirical analysis of a phenomenon.
The dominant perspective in academic circles duting the early 20th century
was that Positivism very much shaped the way society should be studied.
Social Sciences, hence, started an intellectual mode of inquiry about society
with a very scientific mindset. Human sensory perception would be very crucial

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 4

in this mode of inquiry as everything must be seen, felt, smelled, tasted, or
heard for one to be able to say that an event has actually ocured or transpired.
Factors and reasons as to why a certain social phenomenon exists should be
tangible enough to be oberved, analyzed, and interpreted.
In other words, the prime mover of our actions can be discovered, highlighted,
and examined. It is the social scientists task to unravel that. Armed with a
positivist mindset and a rigorous scientific method, contemporary problems,
such as poverty,criminality,health and medical issues, political instability,
economic collapse,historical inaccuracies, injusice, etc., will all be approached
with rigor, objectivity, and strict adherence to science the science of society.

What is the “science” and the “social” behind the study of society?
Establishin the Framework of Social Science
The term Social Science is a body of knowledge characterized by an objective to
understand what society is and what does it do to people living inside it.
On the other hans, the word “science” is also a key idea in the said rubric of
disciplines. Reviewing how Social science emerge in European intellectual
tradition, positivistic science played a major role in shaping what social science
would be for most of the 20th century.
Traditionally, social science disciplines most associated with humanities are
the following: History, Anthropology including archaeology and linguistics
because they all deal with the human past and touch on the meaning of being
human.
Theorizing Society Through Social Science Disciplines
Below is a table of the fundamental concepts that social science theories
collectively emphasize.
FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS WHAT DOES SOCIAL SCIENCE
EMPHASIZE?
Individual Social actors and active, mindful and
conscious decision makers
Nature Environment; social structures that
provide the physical and biological as
well as the social context of collective
action or social phenomena.
Culture Shared and collective actions, ideas
and values that are demonstrated,
exhibited, produced, and reproduced
by a particular group of people and

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 5

 communicated through symbols
including language.
Social Structure Patterns of behaviour and
interaction, which have been
institutionalized over time; result of
human interaction with one another
and with the social world and natural
world.
Action Decisions, activities, and interactions
made by human beings in the context
of their particular social world and
conditioned by their collective
consciousness.

Social science disciplines pose different questions but they actually observe a
common social phenomenon- everyday life events and activities that involve
people and affect people living together in particular society.
Defining academic disciplines can prove to be a difficult activity since all of
them would have multiple definitions and explanations. Leaving the more
detailed aspects to specialists but paying more attention to key terms in each
discipline.
Anthropology- “anthropos” (human), “logos” (study of)
Demography- “demos” (people), “graphein” (description)
Economics- “economy” (household management)
Geography- “geo” (Earth), “graphein” (description)
Linguistics- “lingua” (tongue, language)
History- “histoire” (recorded and documented events)
Political Science- “politika”, “polis” (affairs of the cities)
Psychology- “psyche” (mind), “logos” (study of )
Sociology- “Socius” (people together, associate), “logos” (study of)

Activity # 1
I. Draw a specific thing that define your own understanding about
modernity.Elucidate your answer.

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 6

 II. Connect three specific concepts and ideas normally tackled in the
various disciplines of social science. How do they all interact and link to
each other?

Social Science Sociology

Scientific
Ideas
Culture Linguistics Social Structure
Human History Psychology
Society

Language Philosophy
Nature
Economics

Week 3 and 4: Perspectives: How Do Ideas of and about Society Shape the
Way We Look at the World?

Learning Competencies:

 Explain the major events and its contribution that led to the
emergence of the social science disciplines.

Introduction:
Today, Selfies are a common phenomenon among us, especially the
youth. Selfies are generally portraits of and about oneself, aided by information
and communication technology, which enables the photograher to easily take,
record, and document aspects of his or her social life and instantly show it to
the world via internet and social media.
Just like taking pictures of ourselves via selfies, observe and reflect on how we
(re) create and represent realities based not on what we actually do or what is
the real situation of a given moment but on how we compose, recreate, and
sometimes, choreograph these moments to be captured by digital cameras and

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 7

posted on the internet. Is there any truth to what we show in our selfies and
videos at all?
How do we see social reality? How should we see it? How do we intend to
change or reform it?
Theories are our explanatory models where we could analyze, examine and
interpret what we see and experience about life, society, and humanity.
Recreating, reforming, and reconstructing imply that there is something wrong
about us and around us that we need to immediatey addres; that the wrongs
that we painstakingly strive to see and illustrate do not easily reveal
themeselves to us.
Classical Framework: Evolution and Function
The human body. This is how basic and fundamental classical social theories
begin. We set off with an image of a human body, using it as both a metaphor
and heuristic device (a learning tool). What we can learn from this fact and self-
reflection is that there is more to the human body than discovering proportions
and biological constants.
Understanding Society Based on Nature
Evolution. The long process of adaptation and change, of survival and self-
preservation, and of competition and struggle for success shaped the way
nature is today and will shape it still in the future.
Classical evolutionism states that living organisms, overtime, develop from
simple forms of existence to complex states of life. The premise was that the
more complex an oraganism, the better its chances of survival of the whole
body.
Evolutionism became “Darwinism”, the name taken from the British thinker,
Charles Darwin. it highlightened and popularized only some of Darwin’
thoughts, particularly the “survival of the fittest” and “natural selection” .
Function. The theory of function was developed by Herbert Spencer and Emile
Durkheim. The whole point of this theory is to liken society to a living organism
complex body parts and all whose objectives are self-preservation and self-
perpetuation.

The Notion of Function

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 8

Functionalism states that what keeps society together is the function or role
that all parts of a system perform, assert, and play in order to preserve,
maintain, and sustain society for posterity. No society would want to destroy
itself so that each and every part, institution and sector, must perform
expected roles and functions.
Classical Frameworks: Historical Materialism and Human Personality
Historical Materialism and Karl Marx
The 19th century German social thinker, Karl Marx, approached the nature of
Western society from a different perspective,that is from the perspective of the
economy.
Classes or categories of people are markedly defined according to where they
stand in the productive process. Marx called the owner of the factory as the
capitalist; and the workers, the proletariat. Social relations depend on who
owns or controls the means of production (land, technology, and capital)- in
this case, the capitalist.
To elucidate further, society consist of two parts: first, the base , which is the
economy, second, the superstructure, which consist of social structures such
as religion, family, law, government, culture, values, etc.
Using theory of how society evolves, Marx surmised that humans underwent a
unilineal historical process based on economic or materialist framework. This
is known in social theory as “historical materialism”. In other words, history,
according to Marx, has been a story of conflict between classes- between haves
and haves-nots, the ruling class and the dominated class, and the elites and
the workers.
Modes of Means of Characteristic Historical period
Production production
Primitive Foraging in Tribal society. No Prehistory
communism nature ruling class,
egalitarian
Ancient mode of Slave labor Ancient society. Ancient Times
production Ruling class
exists
Feudalism Land Reciprocal Medieval period
relations between
landlords and
peasants
Capitalism Machines, Ruling class Industrial,
factories exploiting the Capitalist society.
working class

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 9

 Socialism Publicity and Production Postcapitalism
collectively owned intended to
machines, directly satisty
factories, and human needs
other productive
forces
Communism Publicly and Perfect and ideal Hypothetical
collectively owned system of human future
machines, affairs
factories, and
other productive
forces

The problem with this system, with these structures, according to Marx, is that
they are human beings own creation. All these are products of their thoughts
and actions. Unfortunately, what people have created seemed to develop an
objective existence, meaning, they appear to be natural and real, having a life
of its own.

Classical Psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud, the influential German psychologist of the early 20 th century,
provided not only a revolutionary way of understanding human personality but
also how society affects our psychology. Freud’s theory of human personality
revealed another facet of society, which does not only remain up there above
our heads but resides even in the recesses of our minds, of our consciousness.
Freud’s ideas have been used in many different formulations of social theory
way beyond his era.
In Freudian perspective, “socialization”,the lifelong process of learning the was
and behaviors appropriate to a particular society, is not only an external or
structural process but also an internal, mental process.
id The unconscious self

ego The conscious and

rational self

superego The conscience

To further understand this ongoing conflict, Freud explained that the self
consists of three parts.

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 10

 The first one is called the “id”. In its natural state, the human being has
uncontrollable instinctual desires, say, things that pertain to violence or sexual
drives. Which need to be gratified. In the deepest recesses of the mind lies the
id, the unconscious aspect of the human mind. In child development, it is the
first one to be developed, but slowly being restrained and suppressed as the
child grows older.
The id. Freud says that, a child is born with the id. The id operates on
the pleasure principle. It focuses on immediate satisfaction of its needs.
For example, a baby is hungry. It’s id wants food or milk so the baby
will cry. When the baby child needs to be changed, the id cries. When the
child is uncomfortable, in pain, too hot, too cold or just want attention,
the id speaks up until his or her needs are met. Nothing else matters to
the id except satisfaction of its own needs. When the id wants
something, it wants it now and it wants it fast.

Next is the “ego”, the conscious and rational part of the self. Just like in a
government, it is the executive branch, the one executing or performing action
and decisions. It is torn between gratifying the tendencies of the id and
censoring them. It mediates between the biological and social needs of the
person.
The ego. As the baby turns into a toddler and then into a pre-schooler,
he/she relates more with the environment, the ego slowly begins to
emerge. The ego operates using the reality principle. It is aware that
others also have needs to be met. It is practical because it knows that
being impulsive or selfish can result to negative consequences later, so it
reasons considers the best response to situations. Although it functions
to help id meets its needs, it always takes into account the reality of the
situation.
Example: Tim really wanted to slug Mark, for what he had just said.
However, Tim knew if he hit Mark, he would be kicked off the baseball
team, and since he would be kicked off the baseball team, and since he
loved baseball, he unclenched his fists and walked away.

Lastly, the “superego”. It is the internalization of societal values and beliefs. It

plays a moralizing role for the individual because it serves as the person’s
conscience. It is last to be formed in the development of a person and
inculcated in his or her personhood.
Ultimately, this leads to Freud’s prescription for modern society: that for social
order to be achieved and for chaos to be avoided, the superego must tame the

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 11

id and restrain it within the bounds of social expectations, mores and
regulations; otherwise, everybody will be doing anything that he or she wishes
to do.
The superego. Near the end of the preschool years, or the end of phallic
state, the superego develops. It embodies a person’s moral aspect. This
develops from what the parents, teachers and other persons who
exert influence impart to be good or moral. The superego is likened to
conscience because it exerts influence on what one considers right and
wrong.
Example: Sarah kew she could steal the supplies from work and no
One would know about it. However, she knew that stealing was
Wrong so she decided not to take anything even though she would
Probably never get caught.

Let’s Try
Tell whether the following situation is belong in ID,EGO, SUPEREGO
1. Maggie couldn’t remember the aswer to test question #12, even though
she had studied. Nate was the smartest kid in the class, and from where
Maggie sat, she could see his answers if she turned her head slightly.
When Nate turned her back, Maggie almost cheated, but her conscience
stopped her because she knew it was wrong. Instead Maggie took a guess
at the answer and then turned in her paper.
2. Mary really wanted to borrow her Mom’s necklace, but her mom would
be angry if she took it without asking, so she asked her mom if she could
wear it.
3. Sally was thirsty. However, she knew that her server would be back soon
to refill her water glass, so she waited until then to get a drink, even
though she really just wanted to drink from Mr. Smith’s glass
4. The cashier only charged the couple for one meal even though they had
eaten two. They could have gotten away with only paying for one, but
they pointed out th cashier’s mistake and offered to pay for both meals.
They wanted to be honest and they knew that the restaurant owner and
emploees needed to make a living.
5. A hungry baby cried until he was fed.
6. Bart was stuck n traffic. He just wanted his vehicle to move! Enraged at
the situation, Bart pulled his car onto the shoulder and sped forward,
not caring that he was clipping people’s side mirrors aas he tried to get
ahead of the cars in front of him.

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 12

Activity # 2
Diagram above shows various epochs of human society based on changing
modes of production. As a student, what mode of production is best for you?
Elucidate your answer.

Week 5 and 6: Our very interactions shape us: How do everyday life and
relationships mold our realities?
Learning Competencies:

 Analyze the basic concepts and principles of the major social

science theories:
a. Structural-functionalism
b. Marxism
c. Symbolic Interactionism
Introduction
What is more important in shaping human social existence, structures,
or individual actions?
Human actions are concrete, physical, and empirical phenomena observable,
sensory and realistic. They lie on the level of worldly affairs, of society as
material. Moreover, human action is also a function of consciousness and
senses. When we interact and engage with our world, we both think and feel.
Society seems to be real only because there are humans who actively
participate in it.
In contemporary social theory, the role of individuals is given more importance
and appreciation than it used to get from social thinkers and philosophers of
previous centuries.

Phenomenology
Its More Fun in the Philippines. In 2020, the Department of Tourism launched
this rather ingenious way of promoting tourism in the country. It seems that it
did work as tourist arrivals reached record highs in the succeeding years.
The idea of “phenomenology centers on how particular individuals and groups
comprehend the world in which they live. Derived from the Greek word
phainomenon, which means “that which appears”, it is about perceiving and
analysing an observable occurrence. The key phrase here is “from the point of

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 13

people”. This explains why the emphasis is on specific individuals or groups of
people they are actors and performers of a certain event or social engagement.
Phenomenology basically elaborated on earlier ideas of the German philosopher
Immanuel Kant(1724-1804), who viewed the world the world as having two
aspects: noumena and phenomena. The former is understood as “things in and
for themselves” that is the “truth”, which can never be fully fathomed as we do
not have direct access to it. The other one is recognized as “the external world”.
Thus the phenomena, sinc it is both a subjective and objective external reality
(unlike the noumena, which is hidden), we can study and comprehend it using
certain tools of analysis and understanding.
Structural Functionalism
In sociology and other social sciences, a school of thought according to which
each of the institutions, relationships, roles, and norms that together
constitute a society serves a purpose, and each is indispensable for the
continued existence of the others and of society as a whole.
In structural functionalism, social change is regarded as an adaptive response
to some tension within the social system. When some part of an integrated
social system changes, a tension between this and other parts of the system is
created, which will be resolved by the adpative change of the other parts.

Marxism
A body of doctrine ddeveloped by Karl Marx and to a lesser extent. It originally
consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical anthropology, atheory of
history, and an economic and political program.
There is also Marxism as it has been understood and practiced by the various
socialist movements.
The written work of Marx cannot be reduced to a philosophy, much less to a
hilosophical system. The whole of his work is radical critique of philosophy.
Marx declared that philosophy must become reality, one could no longer be
content with interpreting the world; one must be concerned with transforming
it, which meant transforming both the world itself and human consciousness
of it. In fact, Marx believed that all knowledge involves a critique of ideas.

Symbolic Interactionism

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 14

Social interactionists believe that society is not a static entity that appears
before the individual but, on the contrary, it is the actors/ individuals that
carry the “leading role”.
The idea of having a society is at all possible because of active individuals
carrying out their respective scripts and roles, all striving to live out everyday
events, respond to challenges, and resolve practical problems in life.
Further strands of this theory underscore the importance of culture in shaping
what would be the basis of social interactions; scripts, languages, and all.
Language plays a central role in the creation of this social construction. It is
viewed here as having a greater role in producing and sustaining social
interaction. This includes nonverbal language as well as facial expressions,
which all have a say in how interaction between and among individuals should
take place.
Getting a little bit more psychological in perspective, the individual self gets
primary attention how does an individual develop his or her selfhood within
society? This is done againts the backdrop of other people’s opinions and
perceptions. Self is the product of combined social experiences and
interactions. It was nonexistent upon birth; it is developed over the years as
the individual grows. Here we can say that the “self” is profoundly a social
creation.

Activity # 3
What are your realization regarding the things you learned from the Major
Social Science theory?

Week 7 :Society and Us: How do we make sense of ourselves and the of the
world around us?

Learning Competencies:

 Apply the major social science theories and its importance in

examining socio-cultural, economic, and political conditions.
a. Structural-functionalism
b. Marxism
c. Symbolic Interactionism
Introduction

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 15

 This chapter opens with a controversial image taken during the early
years of American colonization of our country. A closer analysis should give us
an idea that there are powerful messages hidden. Having understood and
discovered the underlying themes of the image and applying the same mode of
analysis to any other underlying discourses that we may think of say, the
discourse of religion, capitalism, media, family, nation etc.
Background: Lessons from Language
Structuralism, as a mode of social inquiry, is an entirely different way of
looking at social and cultural phenomena. There are two related and
interconnected theories of society: structuralism and post-structuralism. As
the name suggests, post-structuralism is a reaction to the former. Hhowever
they belong to the same strand, to the same mode of thinking.
Structuralism is inspired by the ideas of Emile Durkheim and Ferdinand de
Saussere, who were contemporary thinkers of the early 20th century in
Europe.
Durkheim saw the basic classificatory structures, the binary categories of life
that the human mind has created to make sense of the world: day/night,
male/female, white/black, life/death, and sacred/profane.
Saussure, saw the basic distinction between the language and the parole. The
language is the internal structure and logic of a particular language. The
langue is the overall system of thought that guides the linguistic capacities of
humans; words, rules, grammar, syntax,logic and much more.
The language consits of a basic element, which is called the sign. It has to
components: the signifier (symbol) and the signified (idea or concept). The
signifier, be it a sound or visual, its a representation tool. The signified, on the
other hand, is pure concept shaped and determined by the existing langue.
All five words would not mean a thing to us unless one knows some French
(homme), Spanish (hombre), Bahasa (orang), English (man), or Filipino (tao).
Overall, those words are symbols of a concept that is being referred to a human
being, which is purely a function of the particular langue. In the example given,
we can even push the argument further that for French, Spanish, and English,
the signifier is gendered, meaning the male person is being used to refer to
both sexes that illustates the langue, which shapes social relations as well as
gender relations among people who speak those languages. On the other hand,
for Bahasa and Filipino, the concept is a person whose gender or sex is
immaterial to the given word or symbol. In due time, the symbol may change or
be revised, but it has nothing to do with the concept of “man” or “person”.

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 16

Words may change but the idea remains the same. In the end, the sign within
a linguistic system is a unified entity. The signifier and signified are intimately
and thoroughly united in a given situation, in a given time and context.
Activity # 4
Examine the following signifiers and study how words may change its meaning
over time, especially in the Philippine context:
Salvage
Coño
Tribe
EDSA
Color Yellow

Week 8 and 9:Society and Us: How do we make sense of ourselves and the of
the world around us?
Structuralism: Hidden Layers of Our Social Reality
If there is a langue in language that shapes its overall system, there should be
something in society that shapes social and cultural phenomena.
Roland Barthes, in his version of Structuralism, reffered to the language in
society as “texts” that is equivalent of a sign in language. Writing in the 1950’s
and the 1960’s, Barthes imagined a given text to be anything. It does not
necessarily have to be limited to language but should also apply to all aspects
of human life, especially those fund in modern, urban societies.
The objective of anyone wanting to understand the underlying structure in a
given social and cultural phenomenon should be to decode the text and expose
its denotation meaning (dictionary meaning or standard vocabulary) and its
connotation meaning ( other meanings as a consequences of usage, practice,
and interpretation).
By analysing the seemingly harmless or ordinary “text”, say, a product
advertisement found ubiquitously in an urban and capitalist society, one would
realize that there is more to it than meets the eye: a careful decoding of the text
i.e (advertisement in television, billboards, and print media) would reveal the
hidden narratives of a particular dominant ideology.
Post-structuralism: Discourses Cannot Entirely Represent Our Reality

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 17

Reacting and responding to the perceived limitations of structuralist analysis,
post structuralism sees discourses based on a given sign or text as having no
real anchor in the world, which circumscribes or limits people’s consciousness
within a given sytem or language. You do not derive meanings from the outside
world; only from the internal system of the langue as found in the specific
discourse. In other words, meanings depend on context and the sign has no
inherent meaning.
Writing does not represent the real world, but only ts own system. So the next
time we see or observe changes in the way or manner we write, it is because
writing does not guarantee anything in the real world. Writings is an arena a
dynamic setting where words, concepts, and representations create its own set
of meaning and employ its own process of meaning making.

Let’s Try
Give your thoughts and ideas about our Society and the Hidden layers of our
social reality?
References:
Tatel Carlos P.,Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Science,REX Book Store,
2016.

HUMSS 11 – Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences - Page 18