FCL400: A MAN FOR OTHERS
A.Y. 2023-2024 | Prelim | 2nd Semester
LESSON 1: THE NOTION OF SOCIETY
Society in Wide Sense:
a. Natural or Primary society - members are
associated to it without choice. One
necessarily belongs to a family, barangay or
nation
b. Voluntary or secondary - freely willed,
educational societies, religious societies,
joint stock companies, sports club, FB
group, NGO's, associations.
Society in restricted sense
● Society is association of men and women
for the attainment of their existential ends
● Society designates association of both men
and women which are characterized by
systematic organization and external
institutions
a. Laws
b. Administrative bodies
c. Governing officials
● The main cohesive force of society is the
shared values, ideals and commitments of
its members
The sociologist Gerhard Lenski on society
- Gerhard Lenski in Power and Privilege
(1966) classified societies on the basis of
their main tools of subsistence and, unlike
Marx, demonstrated statistically that
variations in the primary tools used in a
given society systematically accounted for
different types of social stratification
systems
Types of Society
1. Hunting Gathering (50-150 population size)
- Historical dominance: 50,000-
10,000 BCE
- Technology-economy: Stone-
wood, Sustenance several week
surplus
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- Social organization: Family or kin
bands
- Contemporary examples: Mbuti of
Central African republic, Ju/hoansi
of South
Africa
- Hunter-gatherer culture is a type of
subsistence lifestyle that relies on
hunting and fishing animals and
foraging for wild vegetation and
other nutrients like honey, for food.
Until approximately 12,000 years
ago, all humans practiced hunting-
gathering.
- Because hunter-gatherers did not
rely on agriculture, they used
mobility as a survival strategy.
Indeed, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle
required access to large areas of
land, between seven and 500
square miles, to find the food they
needed to survive. This made
establishing long-term settlements
impractical, and most hunter-
gatherers were nomadic. Hunter-
gatherer groups tended to range in
size from an extended family to a
larger band of no more than about
100 people.
2. Horticultural (150-3000 popsize)
- Historical dominance: 7,000-5,000 years
ago
- Technology-economy: Sickle, hoe,
Horticulture several month surplus
- Social organization: Chiefdoms,
specialized religious military roles
- Contemporary examples: Yanomamo of
Brazil, Dani of New Guinea
- Horticultural societies developed around
7000 BCE in the Middle East and gradually
spread west through Europe and Africa and
east through Asia. They were the first type
FCL400: A MAN FOR OTHERS
A.Y. 2023-2024 | Prelim | 2nd Semester
of society in which people grew their own
food, rather than relying strictly on the
hunter-gather technique. This means that
they were also the first type of society in
which settlements were permanent or at
least semi-permanent.
- There are both simple and more advanced
forms of cultivation used in horticultural
societies. The most simple use tools such
as axes (to clear forest) and wooden sticks
and metal spades for digging. More
advanced forms may use foot-plows and
manure, terracing and irrigation, and rest
plots of land in fallow periods. In some
cases, people combine horticulture with
hunting or fishing, or with the keeping of a
few domesticated farm animals.
3. Pastoral (150-10,000 pop.size)
- Historical dominance: 5,000-10,000 yrs.
ago
- Technology-economy: Domesticated
animals Surplus on the hoof
- Social organization: Chiefdoms /marked
inequality
- Contemporary examples: Masai of
Kenya/Fulani of Nigeria/Navajo of the
American West
4. Agrarian
- Historical dominance: 5,000 to 1750
A.C.E
- Technology-economy: Animal drawn
plow,irrigation, agriculture, animals
- Social organization: Complex division of
labor, religious institutions, and social
inequality.
- Contemporary examples: Ancient Egypt,
Feudal Europe, Third World countries, rural
Philippines, Thailand, Mexico
- Human society earlier constituted of hunter-
gatherers. While the reasons are unknown,
humans started shifting from hunting-
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gathering to agriculture around 12000 years
ago which also marked the end of the last
ice age and the start of the Holocene
epoch. This is known as the Neolithic
Revolution
- Agriculture is believed to have first begun in
the Fertile Crescent which extends from
Iraq to Egypt. Agriculture allowed people to
settle down and form communities which
gave rise to new social structures and forms
of human societal organization. The ancient
Egyptian civilization, Indian civilization,
Chinese civilization, and Mayan civilization
were all agrarian.
5. Industrial Millions to over billions
- Historical dominance: 18th-20th century
- Technology-economy: Machine power;
electric, petroleum, nuclear power
- Social organization: Growth of state power
- Contemporary examples: Brazil, Eastern
Europe
6. Post industrial
- Historical dominance: Late 20th century
and early 21st centuries
- Technology-economy: Computer
information technologies, photonics,
robotics; biogenetics
- Social organization: Scientific and
technical institutions, emerging global
classes; social networks and power
Structures
- Contemporary examples: US, Japan and
much Western Europe
LESSON 2: THE COMMON GOOD
Definition
- The Catechism, following Pope John XXIII
in Mater et Magistra and Vatican II,
defines the common good as:
 FCL400: A MAN FOR OTHERS
A.Y. 2023-2024 | Prelim | 2nd Semester
- "the sum total of social conditions which
allow people, either as groups or as
individuals, to reach their fulfillment more
fully and more easily. Mater et Magistra -
"Mother and Teacher" (1961), paragraph 65
Mater et magistra
- An encyclical letter written by the
Pope to all Catholics. Vatican Il
- Was an ecumenical council that took
place in Vatican City from October 11,
1962, until December 8, 1965. This council
represents a major event in the life of the
Church of the 20th century, and for this
reason it constitutes a fundamental era in
universal history.
Common Good Short History - Aristotle
● In Book I of the Politics, Aristotle asserted
that man is political by nature. It is only
through participation as citizens in the
political community, or polis, provided by the
state that men may achieve the common
good of community safety-only as citizens
and through active engagement with
politics, whether as a public servant, a
participant in the deliberation of laws and
justice, or as a soldier defending the polis,
that the common good can be achieved.
Indeed, Aristotle argued that only matters
of the common good are right; matters
for the rulers' good are wrong.
Short History - Rousseau
● For Rousseau, writing in the mid-18th
century, the notion of the common good,
achieved through the active and voluntary
commitment of citizens, was to be
distinguished from the pursuit of an
individual's private will. Thus, the "general
will" of the citizens of a republic, acting as a
corporate body, should be distinguished
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from the particular will of the individual.
Political authority would only be regarded as
legitimate if it was according to the general
will and toward the common good. The
pursuit of the common good would enable
the state to act as a moral community.
The Principle of the Common Good
- The common good includes all social
conditions that help people reach their full
human potential. The common good is
determined by respect for the person, social
well-being
and peace. The universal common good,
focuses on our world as a global village that
makes us see beyond our immediate
environment.
- the sum total of social conditions which
allow people, either as groups or as
individuals, to reach their fulfillment more
fully.
Three Essential elements of the Common Good
1. Respect for the human person
- All human beings have dignity
because they are made in the image
of God and are loved by God.
- Nothing can take away this
fundamental dignity, not even
his/her worst actions.
- This belief is the foundation of all the
principles of our social teachings
- People motivate by selfishness, fear
or hate, have always found reasons
not to respect the dignity of others:
race, gender, nationality, disability,
age, history.
A.1. Respect for the Unborn Life
- The catechism of the Catholic church
states: "since the first century the church
has affirmed the moral evil of every
procured abortion. This teaching has not
 FCL400: A MAN FOR OTHERS
A.Y. 2023-2024 | Prelim | 2nd Semester
changed and remains unchangeable. Direct
abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either
as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to
the moral law" (no. 2271).
A.2. The Death Penalty
- Recourse to the death penalty on the part of
legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was
long considered an appropriate response to
the gravity of certain crimes and an
acceptable, albeit extreme, means of
safeguarding the common good.
A.3. The PWD (Person with disability)
- More than a billion people, about 15% of the
world's population, are estimated to live with
some form of disability worldwide. (World
Health Organization's World Report, 2011).
According to a 2010 government census,
there are at least 1.4 million Filipinos with
disabilities.
Republic Act 7277
- "An Act to Enhance the Mobility of Disabled
Persons by Requiring Certain Building,
Institution, Establishments, and Other
Public Utilities to Install Facilities and Other
Devices."
- Public and private buildings and related
structures for public use and which shall be
constructed, repaired or renovated.
- Streets and highways and public utilities:
● Streets and highways
● Public transport vehicles
● Public telephones
A.4. Gender Equality
- Achieve gender equality and empower all
women and girls
A. 4.1. Gender equality in the workplace.
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A.4.2 . All gender - restroom
2. Social well being and development of the
group
- Social policy promotes well being
quality education and universal literacy
3. Peace and stability for a just society
Social Stability and theoretical background
● The social role premise of social stability is
reflected in the most frequently referenced
measures of social stability, which calculate
one's cumulative social stability score based
on a predefined set of criteria. These most
commonly include assessment of one's
employment, marital, and housing status,
but also include criminal justice and mobility
indicators.
● For example, Straus and Bacon measured
social stability using a cumulative index of
○ living in one's own home
○ residential immobility for at least 2
years
○ living with wife
○ having a steady job for at least 3 years
Constancy and Resilience in Social Stability
- Cyclical and exacerbating associations
among stability domains and associated
feelings of constant change and uncertainty
that challenge attempts to improve one's
social situation.
■ homelessness,
■ lack of regular employment,
■ poverty, and
■ fragile relationships that
contribute to a "chronic sense of
uncertainty" and feeling "out of
control" that contrasts stability.
- Similarly, among urban welfare recipients, a
litany of daily struggles made it nearly
 FCL400: A MAN FOR OTHERS
A.Y. 2023-2024 | Prelim | 2nd Semester
impossible to maintain long-term daily
routines given
❖ varying income
❖ housing difficulties
❖ employment wait lists, and
❖ health care issues.
- Respondents lived in circumstances of
"constant uncertainty and instability" and
could take little for granted on any regular
basis.
LESSON 3: NOTION AND ORIGIN
OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL
TEACHINGS
Catechetical Foundation
- "The Church, mother of mankind, above all,
sees with profound sorrow' an innumerable
multitude of men and women, children and
adults and old people and unique human
beings who suffer in misery
- By means of catechesis, in which due
emphasis is given to her social teaching,
the Church desires to stir Christian hearts to
the cause of justice and to a preferential
option or love for the poor; so that her
presence may really be light that shines and
salt that cures."
Catholic Social Teaching The Early Church
● The scriptures: Early church took seriously
Jesus' mandate to his followers to relate to
others as brothers and sisters
● The first Christians shared their property
and goods (Acts 2:44-47)
● Condemned selfishness (1 Cor. 11:18-34)
● And encouraged generous haring,
especially when others are in need.
Because of Church's compassion, many
were attracted to Christ and converted
The Church Fathers
● St. Ambrose (340?-397 ACE)
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● You are not making a gift to the poor man
from your possessions, but you are
returning what is his. For what is common
has been given for the use of all, you make
exclusive use of it. The earth belongs to all,
not to the rich.
● As the church became more organized, the
church established hospitals, homes for
battered women, orphanages, school
system, homes for the aged and dying.
● This Religious Congregation, founded in
1864 by José María Benito Serra and
Antonia de Oviedo and Schönthal, lives
out its charism by comprehensive care to
women in prostitution or victims of trafficking
for the purpose of sexual exploitation
Modern Teaching
● Pope Leo XIII (pope from 1878-1903)
● Pope Leo lived at the time when Marxism
was greatly followed by worker of the world.
● Marxism made a critique of capitalism
which often exploited workers for profits,
and
● industrial barons trampled workers' rights
● Lack decent wages
● No pensions, health insurance
● Marxism claimed workers' paradise, a
utopia which would result from his ideas ●
Marx believes the state would treat all men
equally.
● Pope Leo XIII wrote the encyclical Rerum
Novarum in 1891 "On the Condition of
Labor”
RERUM NOVARUM
Common Good
- The purpose of the State is to provide
common good
- Everyone has equal dignity and the
government protects those rights
- Pope Leo wanted everyone to be a
contributor of common good
 FCL400: A MAN FOR OTHERS
A.Y. 2023-2024 | Prelim | 2nd Semester
- Rights and duties of property ownership
- Right to own private property
- Pope Leo wanted the wealthy to meet their
own needs
- The wealthy were responsible to give alms
JUSTICE AS A JUSTI A VIRTUE
- Justice the moral and cardinal virtue by
which we give God and our neighbor, what
is their due by right.
- Justice disposes one to respect the rights of
each and to establish in human
relationships the harmony that promotes
equity with regard to persons and the
common good
Four types of justice
1. Commutative Justice
- Commutative justice is the justice of
exchange.
- It requires for fairness of agreements and
exchanges between individuals or private
social groups.
- It requires that we respect the equal human
dignity of everyone in our economic
transactions, contracts or promises
Example: If a mother hires a baby sitter to watch
her toddler, then in justice the babysitter should do
a good job of caring for the child and not spend the
whole time on her cellphone or watching tv.
Similarly the mother should pay the baby sitter the
agreed upon wage and not renege on her part of
the agreement.
2. Distributive Justice
- Is justice that guarantees the common
welfare. It involves sharing.
- Distributive justice sees to the just
distribution of the goods of creation that
God intends for us all to use and share.
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- Basic human dignity requires that each
person has a right to the world's good to live
a truly human life.
- We pay our taxes so that government can
guarantee that all citizens
● Education
● Police and fire protection
● Healthcare
● Disability compensation in times
of forced unemployment
3. Legal Justice
- Legal justice relates to citizens' obligations
toward the larger society and government.
Legal justice requires that citizens obey the
laws of society.
- Are some Philippine laws unjust?
● Yes according to the Philippine
Commission on Women. (PCW)
points out some articles in the
Revised Penal Code of the
Philippines which are unfair to
women.
4. Social Justice
Revised penal code article 202
- Article 202 defines prostitution as the act of
women who engage in sexual relations and
lascivious acts for profit, and outlines the
appropriate punishment for such acts.
- According to PCW, the law is unfair since it
implies that prostitutes are "criminals who
engage in the sex industry for monetary
gain." It doesn't take into account that most
prostitutes are forced into the sex trade by
socio-economic factors such as poverty,
making them victims rather than
perpetrators.
- The group adds that the law only penalizes
prostitutes - not the customers or pimps.
LESSON 4: DIFFERENT PRINCIPLES OF
CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHINGS
 FCL400: A MAN FOR OTHERS
A.Y. 2023-2024 | Prelim | 2nd Semester
7 Major Themes from Catholic Social Teaching
1. Dignity of the Human Person
- The Catholic Church proclaims that human
life is sacred and that the dignity of the
human person is the foundation of a moral
vision for society. This belief is the
foundation of all the principles of our social
teaching
- Every person regardless of age, gender,
race, nationality and religion or economic
status- deserves respect.
- This principle is grounded in the idea that
the person is made in the image of God.
- And redeemed by Christ, and therefore is
invaluable and worthy of respect as a
member of the human family
2. Principle of the Common Good
- “We need to participate for the common
good. Sometimes we hear: a good Catholic
is not interested in politics. This is not true:
good Catholics immerse themselves in
politics by offering the best of themselves so
that the leader can govern." - Pope
Francis, 9/16/13
- Includes those conditions that permit people
to reach their full human potential and to
realize their human dignity.
- Human beings grow and achieve fulfillment
in community.
- Human dignity can only be realized and
protected in the context of relationships with
the wider society.
- How we organize our society -- in
economics and politics, in law and policy --
directly affects human dignity and the
capacity of individuals to grow in community
3. Option for the Poor
- The moral test of a society is how it treats
its most vulnerable members.
- The poor have the most urgent moral claim
on the conscience of the nation. We are
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called to look at public policy decisions in
terms of how they affect the poor.
- The option for the poor is an essential part
of society's effort to achieve the common
good
- A healthy community can be achieved only
if its members give special attention to
those with special needs, to those who are
poor and on the margins of society.
Peace and security
- For decades, Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim
minority group, in Myanmar, a
predominantly Buddhist country, have faced
institutionalized discrimination, such as
exclusionary citizenship laws.
- Common good seeks peace and security of
minority group like the Rohingya Muslims
4. Rights and Responsibilities
- "The Catholic tradition teaches that human
dignity can be protected and a healthy
community can be achieved only if human
rights are protected and responsibilities are
met.
- Every person has a fundamental right to life
and a right to those things required for
human decency - starting with food, shelter
and clothing, employment, health care, and
education
- Corresponding to these rights are duties
and responsibilities - - to one another, to our
families, and to the larger society.
- The killing of a government doctor-tagged
by anti- communist groups as a part of the
communist armed movement should be
enough to prove that red- tagging puts
people's lives in danger, according to
activist groups
- Martin Luther King said "violence begets
violence" and that holds true when the
violence is committed by the government.
Brandon became a beautiful person. When
FCL400: A MAN FOR OTHERS
A.Y. 2023-2024 | Prelim | 2nd Semester
we killed Brandon, we killed the belief that
one can change.
- Brandon Bernard, a prisoner was executed
in the US last December 11, 2020 Bernard,
40, was one of five gang members
convicted in Texas of killing Stacie and Todd
Bagley -- who were youth ministers in 1999.
5. Principle of Subsidiarity
- The state has a positive moral function. It is
an instrument to promote human dignity,
protect human rights, and build the common
good.
- The church is wise in encouraging us to join
a variety of associations so that everyone
has the " ability to participate actively in the
economic, political, and cultural life of
society.
- The principle of subsidiarity affirms that the
tasks of governance should be carried out
at the lowest (most local) level possible, so
long as it can be carried out properly.
- Just as it is gravely wrong to take from
individuals what they can accomplish by
their own initiative and industry and give it
to the community, so also it is an injustice
and at the same time a grave evil and
disturbance of right order to assign to a
greater and higher association what lesser
and subordinate organizations can do.
- For every social activity ought of its very
nature to furnish help to the members of the
body social, and never destroy and absorb
them
- Principle of subsidiarity implies the
existence of PTA association-homeowners
association-tricycle owners drivers
association (TODA), labor unions
association
- Some of these associations or institutions
are responsible for making decisions that
affect the community or individual citizens.
For example a city council may affect a
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curfew law for minors after consulting
citizens groups.
- Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso
signed the memorandum implementing City
Ordinance No. 8547 or the ordinance
establishing protection and discipline hours
for children and wards in the Philippine
capital on Monday.
- This was a day after the mayor himself
caught around 22 "batang hamog" or street
children getting drunk and loitering during
the wee hours of the night.
- When the needs in question cannot
adequately be met at the lower level, then it
is not only necessary, but imperative that
higher levels of government intervene
6. Principle of the Dignity of Work and The
rights of workers
- Catholic teaching opposes collectivist and
statist economic approaches. But it also
rejects the notion that a free market
automatically produces justice
- Distributive justice, for example, cannot be
achieved by relying entirely on free market
forces. Competition and free markets are
useful elements of economic systems
- However, markets must be kept within
limits, because there are many needs and
goods that cannot be satisfied by the
market system. It is the task of the state and
of all society to intervene and ensure that
these needs are met.
Economy Justice
- The economy must serve people, not the
other way around.
- All workers have a right to productive work,
to decent and fair wages, and to safe
working conditions
- They also have a fundamental right to
organize and join unions
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A.Y. 2023-2024 | Prelim | 2nd Semester
- People have a right to economic initiative
and private property, but these rights have
limits. No one is allowed to amass
excessive wealth when others lack the
basic necessities of life

7. Stewardship of God's Creation

- The goods of the earth are gifts from God,
and they are intended by God for the benefit
of everyone
- There is a "social mortgage" that guides
our use of the world's goods, and we have a
responsibility to care for these goods as
stewards and trustees, not as mere
consumers and users
- How we treat the environment is a measure
of our stewardship, a sign of our respect for
the Creator.

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