Unit 8: Human Person as Social Animal

Unit 8: The Human Person as a Social Animal

• This unit introduces the philosophy of the human person, focusing on the concept of humans as social animals.
• Learning targets include understanding the impact of culture and tradition on individual lives, and recognizing individual responsibilities to society as a whole, exercising prudence in actions affecting others.

Values and Attitudes

• Learners should display good behavior, prudence, value togetherness and traditions, accept differences, and appreciate the importance of laws, rules, and regulations.

Lesson 3: The Institutions of Society

• This lesson delves into the various social institutions within a society.

Questions for Discussion

• What factors differentiate different societies?
• How do these societal differences impact individual lives?

Application

• The application activity asks students to analyze the good and bad aspects, opportunities, and limitations of their current group or organization.

Three Forms of Society

• Pre-Industrial Society: Population relies solely on environmental resources.

  • Hunting and Gathering Society: Tribal societies rely on hunting and gathering for sustenance, with men hunting and women gathering plants.
  • Pastoral Society: People domesticate and breed animals for food, clothing, and transportation; they also cultivate plants.
  • Horticultural Society: People cultivate plants using tools in suitable environments and no longer are nomadic.
  • Agrarian Society: People cultivate and rotate crops using farm animals like oxen. Trading also flourishes.

• Industrial Society: Characterized by technological advancements, such as machines, leading to faster and more efficient work; opportunity and trading grow as factories emerge.

  • Capitalism: Private individuals own production and distribute goods to markets, leading to social class dominance and inequality.

• Post-Industrial Society: Flourishing information exchange and widespread services are central elements, with advanced technology. It is largely characterized by a virtual society.

Everyday Philosophy

• Plato's philosophy suggests that disagreements within communities can be resolved to promote harmony and societal growth, with society structuring itself for individual flourishing.

Lesson 4: The Hands that Shape Society

• The focus is on how social systems impact individual interactions.

Deeper Dive Insights

• George Herbert Mead's perspective emphasizes social roles developed through interactions, with individuals adopting the perspectives of others in social situations.

Karl Marx: A Figure in History

• Karl Marx is recognized as a key figure in the socialist and communist movements.
• His main ideas are outlined in "The Communist Manifesto" and "Das Kapital."
• Marx believed that societal relations are fundamentally shaped by underlying socioeconomic systems.
• Society requires land, labor, and capital for wealth creation.
• The underlying questions are:
  • Who controls these resources?
  • Who participates in production?
  • Who receives the profits made?

The Means of Production

• Land: Refers to the spaces and resources used for production processes.
• Labor: The interaction between humans and their environment during production.
• Capital: Money, tools, and equipment used to create goods and services, keeping production running.

Social Systems

• Primitive Communism: Small groups share food, with no private property.
• Feudalism: Landlords control land; peasants live on the land in exchange for labor.
• Capitalism: Wealth is concentrated in the hands of capitalists; workers are the lower class.
• Socialism: The state controls the means of production, allocating resources based on need and work completed.

Disadvantage of Capitalism

• "Alienation of Labor": Working-class individuals create wealth without benefiting from it; they are paid just enough to survive and repeat the cycle.

Integration Activity

• Students are to discuss and present their desired changes for Philippine society through a tableau.

Philo-At-Work

• Aristotle's philosophy argues that humans are naturally social beings, relying on each other to thrive, with individuals effectively mirroring their social environments.