He isconsidered as one of the greatest Filipino social thinkers during the nineteenth century.

Syed
Farid Alatas (2010) considers Rizal as the first systematic social thinker in Southeast Asia because his
writings can be used as basis of sociological theories and concepts.
Also Rizal’s social ideas focused on the necessity to promote a genuine propaganda campaign that
will provide information about the Philippines and their people, their capabilities and achievements,
aspirations and moral rights. These social ideas were consistently discussed by Rizal in his two
novels, namely, the Noli Me Tangere (1887) and El Filibusterismo (1891), and in his Annotation of
Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1890).