UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS

(2ND SEMESTER)

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 natural sciences. And while 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.

What is Social Science? How does it differ from Natural Science?

SOCIAL SCIENCE

 The study of human society and the relationship of human behavior to his society.
 It deals with the institutions and fuctioning 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 pertaint to the natural events that occur in nature.
 Deals with the interrelationship and transformations of matter and energy with objectively measurable
phenomena.

ACTIVITY

Identify whether the following is a part of Natural Science or Social Science. Write NS for Natural Science and
SS for Social Science.

1. The volcanic activity of Mt. Mayon

2. The residents of the 5 KM radius of Mt. Mayon were evacuated.
3. The Piston group conducted a mass rally to demonstrate their protest against jeepney modernization.
4. SANOFI Parmaceuticals manufactured the anti-dengue vaccine to at least minimize the cases of dengue
victims in the country.
5. Migratory birds migrate from the south pole going to the north during the winter times.
6. Typhoon seasons in the Philippines usually occur during habagat season.
7. In the late studies, matter now has 4 major phases, namely; solid, liquid, gas and plasma.
8. Ecosystem is a picture of interrelatioship of living and non-living things.
9. December 1 marked the beggining of month-long celebration of christmas in the country.
10. Sophia is the first arttificial intelligence invention which is a registered citizen in the us with the capability of
communication to her inventor.

 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)

 In return, social and political philosophies were informed by theological reasoning grounded in Revelation
based on the Bible.

Philosophy is distinct from Science.

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PHILOSOPHY

 Based on analytic undestanding 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

 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.

THE UNPRECEDENTED GROWTH OF SOCIAL 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 1500 to 1700.
 It culminated in the works of Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727), which 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, from the Medieval cosmology or
model of the universe.
→ Defines it as divinely ordained, people shifted to the model of the universe as a big machine.
→ The triumph of this model of universe 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)

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 THE SECULARIZATION OF LEARNING AND EDUCATION

REFORMATION

 Begun when REASON and SCIENCE triumphed (specifically Western Reason) over dogman and
religious authority.
→ The period when reformists from the Roman Catholic begun to question the dogman and
teachings of the church.

PROTESTANT MOVEMENT

 Led by Martin Luther, eroded the power of the Roman Catholic Church.
→ It challenged the infallibity 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 its
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

 The period when universities relied mainly on religious tradition and the Bible to explain the nature of
the universe and the place of human being in the grand scheme of things, the 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.

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 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 natural world proliferated in the universities.

MERCHANTS & 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 & COMMERCE

MARCO POLO

 An Italian merchant traveller from Venice whose travels are recorded in Livresdes merveillesdu monde,
introduced the Europeans to Asia and China; that inspired Columbus’s five journeys to America (1492–
1506), to Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world (1519–22).
→ His 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.

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HARRIET MARTINEAU (1802 – 1876)

 Was a writer, ethnographer, political economist and sociologist.

 She is considered as the “mother of sociology”.
 She traveled a lot, especially in the United States, and wrote her travelogues.
 In her accounts expressed in How to Observe Morals and Manners (1838), the deep sociological
insights that we now call as ethnographic narratives are fully expressed.

KARL MARX (1818 – 1883)

 He is considered as the “father of scientific socialism”.

 He introduced the materialist analysis of history which discounts religious and metaphysical (spiritual)
explanation for historical development.

ISIDORE AUGUSTE MARIE FRANÇOIS XAVIER COMTE (1798 – 1857)

 He is considered as the “father of sociology”.

EMILE DURKHEIM (1858 – 1917)

 He was the pioneer of functionalism in sociology.

 He made possible the professionalization of sociology by teaching it in the University of Bordeaux.
 He is also responsible for depending sociology as an independent discipline from psychology.

MAX WEBER (1864 – 1920)

 He was the pioneer of interpretive sociology.

 He stressed the role of rationalization in the development of society.

ANTHROPOLOGY

 The study of human races, origins, societies and cultures.

FRANZ BOAS (1858 – 1942)

 He is considered the “father of American anthropology”.

 He was the 1st anthropologist to have rejected the biological basis of racism or racial discrimination.
 He also rejected the popular Western idea of social evolution or the development of societies from
lower to higher forms.
 He in favor to historical particularism.
→ In each society is considered as having a unique form of culture that cannot be subsumed under
an overall definition of general culture.

BRONISLAW KASPER MALINOWSKI (1884 – 1942)

 He was an anthropologist and ethnographer.

 He was a Polish immigrant who did a comprehensive study of Trobriand Island.
 He developed what social scientists now call as participant observation.
→ It is a method of social science research that requires the anthropologists to have the ability to
participate and blend with the way of life of a given group of people.
 He is also considered as one of the most influential ethnographers in the 20th century.

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ALFRED REGINALD RADCLIFFE-BROWN (1881 – 1955)

 He was an English social anthropologist who developed the theory of structural functionalism.
→ The basic unit of analysis for anthropology and social sciences are the social structures and the
functions they perform to maintain the equilibrium of society.
 He saw individuals as mere products of social structures.

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)

 Is borne out of this move to indigenize social sciences in the Philippines.

NARCISA PAREDES-CANILAO & 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).
 “That 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.”
 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
nonwestern “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, behaviors 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 socioeconomic factors and values that shape an individual’s upbringing.
 It also means the group from which you descend that shares a distinct identity.
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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 socioligical concepts.

 These involve every event between at least two individuals and inculde 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 DESCRIPTION
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
activites.
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 the society.