Introduction to the

Philosophy of the Human

Person
Week 7
Interacting with Society
Chapter 7
Learning Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

• Recognize how individuals form societies and how individuals are

transformed by societies;
• Compare different forms of societies and individuals;
• Explain how human relations are transformed by social systems.
Exploring Initial Ideas and Views
• What are kinds of society that you know of?

• Are there areas in human life where the state or government should
have no power to control or intervene with? What are they?

• When does a government lose its right to govern its citizens?

Society and the State
• What are the kinds of society and what legitimizes the institution of
the state?
Society
• The totality of all natural relations and institutions between man and
man. (Franz Oppenheimer)

• Scope and size differs.

Classifications of Society
According to:
• Geographical location
• Culture
• Ethnicity
• Belief system or religion
• Political ideology
• Type of economy
Kinds of Society
1. Hunting and gathering societies
2. Pastoral societies
3. Horticultural societies
4. Agricultural societies
5. Industrial societies
6. Post-industrial societies
(Tischler, 2007)
Hunting and Gathering Societies
• Depends on what nature provides for their subsistence.
• They hunt animals, gather fruits, nuts, roots, and other edible plant-
based food.
• Men and women are generally treated equally.
• Nomadic
• Usually small in number and their composition is fluid.
• Usually do not have hierarchal social structure thus decision making is
made by all the members of the group.
Pastoral Societies
• Domestication and herding of animals is the primary means of
subsistence.
• People raise animals generally for food, clothing, and transportation.
• Only move to another place when the place they are in no longer
provides sufficient water and food for their livestock, or when the
land in which animals graze is no longer usable.
• Have a hierarchical social structure.
• The concept of social inequality begins to appear in these societies.
Horticultural Societies
• Cultivation of fruits, vegetables, and plants using hand tools is the
primary means of subsistence.
• Tends to be less nomadic and bigger in number compared to hunting
and gathering societies.
• Have a hierarchical social structure or division of labor.
Agrarian Societies
• Cultivation of crops using a mixture of human and non human means
is the primary means of subsistence.
• The use of plow and the irrigation system increases the food supply,
and people no longer need to move.
• Increase in population, development of trade centers, creation of
towns, formation of cities, development of other skills and crafts, and
specialization of jobs.
• Slaves and masters or landowners begins to emerge.
• Greater social inequalities.
Industrial Societies
• Arise primarily as a result of the industrial revolution which started
with the invention of the steam engine by James Watt.
• The primary means of subsistence is the use of mechanical means for
production of goods, instead of human and animal physical power.
• People survive by working in industries that combine science and
technology with the utilization of energy to run machines.
• The practice of slavery loses its significance and slowly disappears.
• The class of slavery is replaced by the working class.
• People have a greater chance of improving their situation in life.
Post-Industrial Societies
• Arise from the use of electronic manipulation and transmission of
information.
• More sophisticated technological developments lead to development
of post-industrial societies.
• The primary means of subsistence is doing service-oriented work in
the industries like finance, healthcare, business or sales, and
education.
• These societies are described as occurring in the Information Age.
Legitimacy of the State
• What legitimizes the state?
State, Society, Government, and Nation
• State – a political human organization that is sovereign and supreme
in exercising its authority within its territory.
• Society – involves politics, culture, religion, and the arts, among
others.
• Government – is the institution that manages the affairs of state.
• Nation – refers to group of people based on language, culture,
ethnicity, and others.
State Power
• The authority of the state comes in the form of power, through its
government, to make laws and to enforce such laws on its
constituents by means of punishments. (Political power/State power)
• How the state acquires this power and exercises it make up the issue
of the legitimacy of the state.

Three general conditions for the legitimacy of the state

• The existence of institution of the state should be justified
• The state should be well structured
• The state should observe the limits of its powers
Justification of the State
• Divine Right Theory
• Social Contract Theory
• Consequentialist Approach
Divine Right Theory
• The state is justified only if it is run by a government whose ruler is
appointed by God.
• This theory considers the monarchy as the best form of government.
Social Contract Theory
• What justifies the political power of the state is the informed and
voluntary consent that its citizens have given to the institution of the
state.
• If the citizens fail to fulfill their obligations toward the state, the state
imposes punishments on them; but if it is the state that fails to fulfill
its primary obligations to its citizens, the citizens acquire the right to
change or overthrow their government.
Consequentialist Approach
Greatest Happiness Principle
• That an act is morally good if it promotes the greatest happiness of
the greatest number of people.

Utilitarianism
• The state is justified in its existence only if it is managed by a
government that promotes the greatest good of the greatest number
of the citizens or that increases their overall happiness.
Structuring State Power
• What is the ideal structure for the state?
Classifying various forms of government
• The number or rulers • Good, when the rulers rule for
• Whether rulers rule to advance their personal good
their personal interests or the • Bad, when they rule for the
common good common good

• The rule of one

• The rule of the few
• The rule of the many
Under the rule of one
• Good form of government – monarchy or kinship
• Bad form of government – tyranny or dictatorship
Under the rule of the few
• Good – aristocracy
• Bad – oligarchy
Under the rule of the many
• Good – constitutional
• Bad – democracy
Limits of State Power
• What are the limits of state power?
The State and Individual Freedom
• A person’s freedom of action can only be justifiably limited if the
person’s exercise of his/her freedom will bring harm to another
person.

• Self-regarding actions – actions that directly and immediately affect

the agent or does of the actions

• Other-regarding actions – actions that directly and immediately affect

other people.
Three regions of absolute human liberty
where the state has absolutely no right to
regulate or interfere
• Region of Consciousness – the region of liberty of thought and
feeling, absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects,
practical or speculative, scientific moral, or theoretical.
• Region of Tastes and Pursuits – the region of freedom of forming the
plan of our life to suit our own character.
• Region of Forming Associations – The region of freedom to unite, for
any purpose not involving harm to others.
The State and Economic Freedom
Economic Freedom
• Concerns the economic activities in the market, namely the activities
of producing, marketing, selling, and buying of goods and services.

How should the state manage these activities so that they will lead to
the common good of society?
Two Ideal Types of Economic System
Capitalism
• Elimination of state intervention in the economic activities.
• The decisions on who produces the goods, what goods to produce,
for whom are the goods produced, and at what price are the goods to
be sold are left totally to the players in the market.

Socialism
• Centralized system of state intervention in the said economic
activities.
Activity
• Answer Exploring Initial Ideas and Views questions number 2 and 3
page 180.