Human Person in a Society: Philosophy

SOCIETY
A society, or a human society, is a group of people involved with each other through persistent relations, or a large
social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory,typically subject to the same political authority and
dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations)
between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum of
such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification
and/or dominance patterns in subgroups.

A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger
society. More broadly, a society may be illustrated as an economic, social, or industrial infrastructure, made up of a
varied collection of individuals. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. A society can be a
particular ethnic group, such as the Saxons; a nation state, such as Bhutan; or a broader cultural group, such as a
Western society.The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious,
benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.

A "society" may even, though more by means of metaphor, refer to a social organism such as an ant colony or any
cooperative aggregate such as, for example, in some formulations of artificial intelligence. What does it mean to be a
member of a community, to “belong” to the society in which you live? The information superhighway that we know
today gives more
focus on computer hardware, software, and systems in terms of contribution to society as the basic tools enabling
fast and efficient transfer of information. Before personal computers were mainly used for word processing.
Nowadays the emergence of portable computers enables many people to transact business everywhere.
According to Soren Kierkegaard 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 pattern. To the extent that we do see others and ourselves with
generalizations; not recognizing existing individuals.

For him we are reduced to mediocrity. Our modern age remains an era of increasing dullness, conformity, and lack of
genuine individuals. (Socio 2007)Life was much simpler before. One begins to comprehend how technology evolved.
From medieval facts 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
encourage are akin with the outlooks of Karol Wojtyla’s We-You/I-You and Martin Bubers I-Thou relations.

Social relationships tend to be less intimate, with lesser self-disclosure involved, but may still be exclusive, and may
demand levels of loyalty. It is human nature to relate with people. It is our way of making connections that satisfy an
important need: sense of belonging, acceptance, and affiliation.You will encounter many different groups as you
expand your social network. Our social relationships, although dictated to a certain extent by our neutral reflexes,
are also affected by other factors such as social influence.

Forms of Social Influence

1. Conformity- is the act of adjusting your behavior, opinions, or beliefs to agree with the prevailing norm or
standard. Why do people conform?
 To be accepted

2. To avoid social disapproval, ridicule, or rejection

3. To satisfy the need for approval from others are likely anxious or have
o low self- esteem.
4. By conforming you get a sense of security that you are one to the group. Conformity gives you a safety net. In a
positive way conformity fosters group cohesiveness. It makes the members united in achieving goals.

2. Compliance - Occurs when individual gives in or agrees with the other person or group, even if one holds a
different opinion about the person or situation. Unlike conformity wherein the person adjusts or changes attitudes
and beliefs, the person who is complying adapts to the actions or rules of another but does not necessarily mean
that the person agreed or has changed.

3. Identification- This takes place when a respectable, famous, or well-liked person exerts great influence on others.
The people follow the ways of the popular figure.

Societies and Characteristics

Society can be understood, following the German sociologist Franz Oppenheirmer (1992, xiv) as referring to the
totality of all natural relations and institutions between man and man. The size and scope of a society differs. A small
group of academic scholars, for instance, can be called a society; while we also speak of society, classified according
to geographical location, culture, ethnicity, belief system or religion, political ideology, and type of economy, among
others. The basis of classification usually corresponds to the common features of the members in a society.
Consequently, societies can overlap, such as when religious societies and ethnic societies exist in one geographical
society, which explains why it is natural for a human individual to be a member of a different societies at the same
time. in each kind of society that he/she is a part of, the human person plays a set of roles, the totality of which
defines his//her social identity. In what follows, we shall examine the kinds of society based on the primary means of
subsistence of resources of life’s necessities.

Kinds of Societies

1.Hunting and gathering society

Demonstrate the strongest dependence on the environment of the various types of pre industrial societies. As the
basic structure of human society until about 10,000–12,000 years ago, these groups were based around kinship or
tribes.

Hunter-gatherers relied on their surroundings for survival— they hunted wild animals and foraged for uncultivated
plants for food. When resources became scarce, the group moved to a new area to find sustenance, meaning they
were nomadic. These societies were common until several hundred years ago, but today only a few hundred remain
in existence, such as indigenous Australian tribes sometimes referred to as “aborigines,” or the Bambuti, a group of
pygmy hunter atherers residing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. unter-gatherer groups are quickly disappearing
as the orld’s population explodes.

2.Pastoral Society
Changing conditions and adaptations ledsome societies to rely on the domestication of animals where circumstances
permitted. Roughly 7,500 years ago, human societies began to recognize their ability to tame and breed animals and
to grow and cultivate their own plants. Pastoral, societies remained nomadic because they were forced to follow
their animals to fresh feeding grounds.

3. Horticultural Society
Horticultural societies formed in areas where rainfall and other conditions allowed them to grow stable crops. They
were like hunter-gatherers in that they largely depended on the environment for survival, but since they didn’t have
to abandon their location to follow resources, they were able to start permanent settlements. This created more
stability and more material goods and became the basis for the first revolution in human survival.

4. Agricultural society
This form of society grows rice and other crops. They also began to farm and raise animals for food. They lived
permanently and improved the technology for farming. Money became a form of exchange for goods and services.

5. Feudal Society
These societies contained a strict hierarchical system of power based around land ownership and protection. The
nobility, known as lords, placed vassals in charge of pieces of land. In
return for the resources that the land provided, vassals promised to fight for their lords. These individual pieces of
land, known as fiefdoms, were cultivated by the lower class.

In return for maintaining the land, peasants were guaranteed a place to live and protection from outside enemies.
Power was handed down through family lines, with peasant families serving lords for generations and generations.
Ultimately, the social and economic system of feudalism failed and was replaced by capitalism and the technological
advances
of the industrial era.

6.Industrial Society
Industrial society refers to a society driven using technology to enable mass production, supporting a large
population with a high capacity for division of labor. Industrial society is
characterized using external energy sources, such as fossil fuels, to increase the rate and scale of production. The
production of food is shifted to large commercial farms where
the products of industry, such as combine harvesters and fossil fuel-based fertilizers, are used to decrease required
human labor while increasing production. No longer needed to produce food, excess labor is moved into factories
where mechanization is utilized to further increase efficiency.

7.Post Industrial
Information societies, sometimes known as postindustrial or digital societies, are a recent development. Unlike
industrial societies that are rooted in the production of material goods, information societies are based on the
production of information. The introduction of new inventions in science eventually led to the industrial revolution in
the 18th century. Industrial revolution is a movement in which machines change people’s way of life as well as their
methods of manufacture and services.

How Human Relations are Transformed by Social Systems.

Humans are the most social species in our planet and that's why almost all human related aspects are influenced by
our society and social system. Social transformation refers to the process of change in institutionalized relationships,
norms, values, and hierarchies over time.

It is the way society changes due to economic growth, science, technological innovations, and war or political
upheavals. Social transformation affects people’s interactions and lifestyle. Regarding individuals, social
transformation refers to the process of altering the social status of one’s parents to resemble their status.

Technology affects the way individuals communicate, learn, and think. It helps society and determines how people
interact with each other daily. Technology plays an important role in society today. It has positive and negative
effects on the world, and it impacts daily lives. Technology plays an essential and important role in industrial and
developing countries.

Technology has affected almost all walk of human life such as education and social life. It has drastically changed the
cultural norms and behavior of individuals. The more society is influenced by technology the more we need to
consider the social, ethical, and technological and scientific aspects of each decision and choice (German 2000).

The Philippine government takes place in an organized framework of a presidential representative, and democratic
republic whereby the president is both the head of state and the head of government. This system revolves around
three separate and sovereign yet interdependent branches: the legislative branch (the law aking body), the executive
branch (the law-enforcing body), and the judicial branch the law-interpreting body).

Executive power is exercised by the government under the leadership of the president. Legislative power is vested in
both the government and the two-chamber congress—the Senate (the upper chamber) and the House of
representatives (the lower chamber). Judicial power is vested in the courts with the supreme Court of the Philippines
as the highest judicial body.
Politics in the Philippines has traditionally been dominated by clans and political bosses and patronage and is
characterized by law makers that make decisions based on fiscal incentives rather that beliefs and voters that make
choices based on personality rather than reasoned policies.

Under the traditional utang na loob system of patronage, or obligation earned through favors, voters expect money
or jobs in return for their political support. In many cases politician’s performance was based on dole-outs not on
programs or policies.

Philippine concepts about debt repayment and kinship responsibilities plays a major role in how political networks
are set up and run. The Philippines is known for it rough-and-tumble political scene. Politicians are routinely killed
and sometimes they even do the do the killing themselves.
Every now and then it seems the entire country is on the verge of collapse because of a coup attempt, People Power
protest or impeachment effort. Politicians are unable to achieve many of their goals and carry out programs they
proposed due to political opposition, mainly from the ruling elite.

An economic system is a means by which societies or governments organize and distribute available resources,
services, and goods across a geographic region or country.

Economic systems regulate the factors of production, including land, capital, labor, and physical resources. An
economic system encompasses many institutions, agencies, entities,
decision-making processes, and patterns of consumption that comprise the economic structure of a given
community.

Economics can be used to fight poverty implementing the right economic policies. Economic growth means an
increase in real GDP – this leads to higher output and higher average incomes. The benefits of\high economic growth
are higher incomes, improved government finances, Increase life-expectancy, reduced poverty, better education.

The effects of slower economic growth could include:

1. Slower increase in living standards – inequality may become more noticeable to those on lower incomes.
2. Less tax revenue than expected to spend on public services.
3. Increased government borrowing – e.g. if demand for medical care and old age pensions is growing faster than the
low rate of economic growth.
. Possible unemployment if growth is insufficient to create new jobs is placed by technology
. Lower inflation rates
. Less strain on environmental resources than expected

Governments often try to increase the growth rate because it will have various advantages. The politicians must
translate the research into action from instigating appropriate plug-ins. There is a need to ascertain explicit programs
that can assuage poverty, ranging from low-cost medical treatments to innovative education programs.

We need to examine the causes of unemployment, absenteeism in education, social programs, and other issues. The
Philippines has a mixed economic system which includes a variety of private freedom, combined with centralized
economic planning and government regulation.

The Philippines' economy is considered as one of the most dynamic economies in East Asia and the Pacific. The
Philippines is a country located in Southeast Asia comprised of more than 7,000 islands. Poverty has proven to be
one of the most significant challenges facing this country and its citizens.

Filipinos are having a hard time surviving in such difficult conditions, and more and more are falling into extreme
poverty. According to the Asian Development Bank, the major causes of poverty include low economic growth, a
weak agricultural sector, increased population rates and a high volume of inequality. Because of these factors, there
are a lot of effects of poverty in the Philippines that make it difficult for people to live in such circumstances. These
are the inability to afford housing, malnutrition, Crime and Thievery, child labor, prostitution and many more.

The Build! Build! Build! (BBB) Program is the centerpiece program of the Duterte administration
that aims to usher the “Golden age of
infrastructure” in the Philippines. Lack of infrastructure has long been cited as the “Achilles’ heel” of Philippine
economic development. To sustain inclusive economic growth, generate new jobs, and improve the quality of life in
both urban and rural communities is the goal.

Compared to other countries in the region, lack of infrastructure has long been cited as the "Achilles' heel" of
Philippine economic development. Statistics show that from the time of Ferdinand Marcos to Benigno Simeon
Aquino 3rd, the country's infrastructure spending-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio just averaged at 2.6
percent of GDP. From 2001 to 2010, the average infrastructure budget was only 1.6 percent or P100.3 billion, while
from 2011 to 2016 it was 3 percent or P378.3 billion.

Upon his assumption of office in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte changed the tempo of infrastructure spending by
raising it, doubling the budget from the immediate past administration. On his State of the Nation Address in 2017,
President Rodrigo Duterte announced the government's plan to make his entire years in office and beyond as the
"Golden Age of Infrastructure" and to build as many structures as possible to improve mobility and connectivity,
which in turn would spur economic growth around the country.

The BBB Program seeks to accelerate public infrastructure expenditure from an average of 2.9 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP) during the Aquino regime to about 7.3 percent at the end of the Duterte administration.
This will cost around P8 trillion to P9 trillion from 2016 to 2022 to address the huge infrastructure backlog in the
country. The program, called "Build, Build, Build" aims to sustain inclusive economic growth, generate new jobs, and
improve the quality of life in both urban and rural communities as outlined in the Philippine Development Plan of the
National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).