Understanding Culture, Society and Politics PDF

# Understanding Culture, Society and Politics ## Chapter 1: The Birth and Growth of The Social Sciences ### The Historical Background of the Growth of Social Sciences * In the development and progress of human knowledge, the social sciences were the last to develop after the natural sciences. *...

# Understanding Culture, Society and Politics ## Chapter 1: The Birth and Growth of The Social Sciences ### The Historical Background of the Growth of Social Sciences * In the development and progress of human knowledge, the social sciences were the last to develop after the natural sciences. * The origin of the social sciences can be traced to ancient Greek philosophers, *Socrates, Plato* and *Aristotle*. * Their development as separate fields of knowledge only begun in the modern period (Collins, 1994, p. 7). ### What is Social Science? How does it differ from Natural Science? * **Social Science**: The study of human society and the relationship of human behaviour to his society. It deals with the institutions and functioning of human society and with the interpersonal relationship of individuals as members of the society. * **Natural Science**: The study of physical and natural world which also pertain to the natural events that occur in nature. Deals with the interrelationship and transformations of matter and energy with objectively measurable phenomena. ### Identify whether the following is a part of Natural Science or a Social Science. Write NS for Natural Science and SS for Social Science. 1. The Volcanic activity of Mount Mayon. NS 2. The residents of the 5 km radius of Mount Mayon were evacuated. SS 3. The Piston group conducted a mass rally to demonstrate their protest against jeepney modernization. SS 4. Sanofi Pharmaceuticals manufactured the anti-dengue vaccine to at least minimize the cases of dengue victims in the country. SS 5. Migratory birds migrate from the South Pole going to the North during the winter times. NS 6. Typhoon seasons in the Philippines usually occur during Habagat season. NS 7. In the late studies, matter now has 4 major phases, namely; solid, liquid, gas and plasma. NS 8. Ecosystem is a picture of interrelationship of living and non-living things. NS 9. December 1 marked the beginning of month-long celebration of Christmas in the country. SS 10. Sophia is the first Artificial Intelligence invention which is a registered citizen in the US with the capability of communication to her inventor. SS ### Before the Birth of Modern Social Sciences in the West * The study of *society, culture* and *politics* were based on social and political philosophy (Scott, 2006, p. 9). * Social and political philosophies were informed by theological reasoning grounded in Revelation based on the Bible. ### Philosophy is distinct from Science * Philosophy is based on analytic understanding of the nature of truth asserted about specific topics of issues. It asks the questions: * What is the nature of truth? * How do we know what we know? * Sciences are based on empirical data, tested theories, and carefully contrived observations. It does not ask the question about the nature of truth. ### The Development of Social Science during the Modern Period A diagram depicts the hierarchical structure of knowledge, starting with science at the top, which branches into: * Pure Science * Applied Science * Social Science Humanities occupy a space parallel to science, branching into: * Visual Arts * Performing Arts * Religion In between science and humanities is a group of 3 disciplines: * Law * Linguistics * History ### The Unprecedented Growth of Sciences * **The Scientific Revolution**: which begun with **Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)**, refers to historical changes in thought and belief, to changes in social and institutional organization that unfolded in Europe roughly between 1550 to 1700. * **The Scientific Revolution** culminated in the works of **Isaac Newton (1643-1727)** who proposed universal laws of motion and a mechanical model of the Universe. * **Sir Francis Bacon** established the supremacy of reason over imagination. * **Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton** laid the foundation that allowed science and technology to change the world. * The discovery of gravity by Isaac Newton, the mathematization of physics and medicine paved the way for the dominance of science and mathematics in describing and explaining the world and its nature. * The coming of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Reason shifted people from the medieval cosmology or model of the universe (defines it as divinely ordained) to the model of the universe as a big machine. * The triumph of the model of the universe as a big machine was facilitated by Newton’s physics. * **Descartes’** separation of the physical from the spiritual, the body from the mind, also led to the triumph of valuing the physical over the spiritual. * Once the physical universe is considered as a machine, it soon became apparent that human beings can explore it according to science in order to reveal its secrets (Merchant, 1986). ### The Secularization of Learning and Education * **Reformation**: begun when REASON and SCIENCE triumphed (specifically Western Reason) over dogma and religious authority. The period when reformists from the Roman Catholic begun to question the dogma and teachings of the church. * **Protestant Movement**: led by Martin Luther eroded the power of the Roman Catholic Church. It challenged the infallibility of the Pope and democratized the interpretation of the Bible * **Enlightenment**: largely a cultural movement, emphasizing rationalism as well as political and economic theory, and it clearly built on the Scientific Revolution (Stearns, 2003, p. 70). * **Immanuel Kant**: a philosopher who challenged the use of metaphysics or absolute truth derived mainly from unjustified tradition and authority such as the existence of God. He advocated the use of reason in order to know the nature of the world and human beings. ### Medieval Period Universities relied mainly on religious tradition and the Bible to explain the nature of the universe and the place of human beings in the grand scheme of things. Modern universities started to rely on science and its method to interpret the world. * **Max Weber**, one of the leading figures in modern sociology, described this process as **rationalization (Medieval Period)**. * **Rationalization**: means that social life is more and more subjected to calculation and prediction. Calculation and prediction can only be achieved if human beings and society rely on regularities established by modern science. * **Germ Theory**: discovered by Louis Pasteur, brought to the development of vaccination. People more and more relied on medical knowledge to deal with diseases. * **Francois Lyotard (1984)**, a French sociologist pointed out that Science triumphed because it provided reliable results. * **Another element of rationalization**: is the separation between different social spheres, especially between the church and the universities. * The collapse of religious authority and the gradual erosion of religious domination over social life of the people led to the use of classical humanistic resources such as ancient philosophy and humanities to advance human knowledge independent of Revelation (Zeitlin, 1968, pp. 3ff). ### The Rise of Universities * **Education**: the single most important factor in the rise of social sciences. * **Secular subjects**: subjects dealing with the natural world proliferated in the Universities. * **Merchants and Capitalists**: supported universities and institutions of secular learning institutions because they became the hub of training future scientists, technocrats, and technological innovators. ### The Dissolution of Feudal Social Relations * With the intensification of commerce and trade in the seventeenth century, many medieval guilds or workers’ cooperatives were dissolved and were absorbed into the emerging factory system. ### Trade and Commerce * **Marco Polo**: an Italian merchant traveller from Venice whose travels were recorded in *Livres des merveilles du monde*, introduced the Europeans to Asia and China. His travels inspired Columbus’s five journeys to America (1492-1506) and Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world (1519-22). * **Marco Polo’s** travels of this period fed the imaginations of the Europeans with vivid descriptions of places whose very existence they had never been unaware of. ### The Rise of Individualism * The intensification of commerce and trade gradually replaced barter with the introduction of money and banking system. * **Individualism**: simply the recognition of the power of the individual to assert his/her freedom against the given norms and structures of the society. * Modern individuals asserted their freedom to choose. * Through education and the spread of scientific worldview, people saw their lives as no longer at the mercy of fate or destiny. ### The Birth of Social Sciences as Response to the Social Turmoil of Modern Period * **Sociology**: a branch of the social sciences that deals with the scientific study of human interactions, social groups and institutions, whole societies and the human world as such. * **Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)**: writer, ethnographer, political economist and sociologist. She is considered as the “mother” of sociology. * **Karl Marx (1818-1883)**: the father of scientific socialism. * **Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (1798-1857)** : considered as the "father" of sociology. * **Émile Durkheim (1858-1917)**: pioneer of functionalism in Sociology. * **Max Weber (1864-1920)**: pioneer of interpretive sociology ### Anthropology * The study of human races, origins, societies and cultures * **Franz Boas (1858-1942)**: the father of American anthropology. * **Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (1884-1942)**: anthropologist and ethnographer. * **Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955)**: English social anthropologist who developed the theory of structural functionalism. ### Political Science * Part of the social sciences that deals with the study of politics, power, and government. * Studies how even the most private and personal decisions of individuals are influenced by collective decisions of a community. * **“Man is by nature a political Animal.” -Aristotle** ### Sikolohiyang Pilipino (SP) * This is borne out of the move to indigenize social sciences in the Philippines. * **Narcisa Paredes-Canilao and Maria Ana Babaran-Diaz**: Two leading exponents of Sikolohiyang Filipino, wrote "Sikolohiyang Pilipino refers to the psychology borne out of the experience, thought and orientation of Filipinos, based on the full use of the Filipino culture and language” (p. 49). * “The idea is that the social sciences, such as Western academic psychology, are very much a product of the common sense, concepts and lived daily realities of the white male fathers of psychology, their respective communities, and local histories.” ### Globalization and its Impact on Social Sciences * With Globalization, social sciences welcome the proliferation of different social theories and ideological orientations. * **Eurocentrism**: reflecting a tendency to interpret the world in terms of European or Anglo-American values and experiences. * **The critique of Eurocentrism of traditional** social sciences allows indigenous cultures and other non-western “subjugated knowledges" to reclaim their voices. * Other than decolonizing western social sciences, social sciences also are also being transformed by feminism and post-modern currents. ### Why do we need to understand our culture, society and political system as an individual of this country? ### Social Background * Encompass the friends you have, the kind of experiences, behaviours and interaction of people with his/her relatives, friends and other groups of people in the society. ### Cultural Background * It consists of the ethnic, religion, race, gender, linguistic type of home and community, customs and other socio-economic factors and values that shape an individual’s upbringing. * It also means the group from which you descend that shares a distinct identity. ### Politics * The authoritative allocation of values for a society. * All human activities to be political only to those that involve the pursuit of goals and values in conjunction with others. ### Social Behavior * Are broad and complicated sociological concepts. * These involve every event between at least two individuals and include all knowledge and experiences a person acquires in the entirety of his/her lifetime. ### Social Phenomena * The individual, external, and social constructions that Influence a personal life and development. ### An Example of a Social Behavior and Phenomena | Type | Descriptions | |---|---| | Food Taboo | The act of prohibiting the consumption of certain food and drinks. Some may be prohibited during certain religious beliefs and period, at certain life stages or certain classes of people. | | Istambay | "Standby"; A person who has nothing to do, maybe jobless or lazy, or someone who does not make use of his time in productive and sensible activities. | | Marriage | A legal and formal union of a man and woman as partners in a relationship. | ## Activity Form a team of three (3) and come up with three (3) other social phenomena/ social behaviors and discuss its effects to your individuality as a part of the society.