I and Social
When individuals live together and form a community, a new social reality is formed beyond the
choices and decisions of the individual. The social reality imposes itself on the self.
One is born into a society beyond his own choice and awakens to the structures already present
in it (e.g. religion, language). Language is a product of society and not of individual decisions.
The social constitutes another aspect of our humanity. What we are now is largely formed by the
society as seen in physical structures and many other things in the society itself. The social is the
total combined effect of forces, and it cannot be traced to a single individual.
The social encompasses all human beings.
Three aspects of the social:
1. Economic
• Goods and services
• Man is a being of needs (food, clothing, shelter, medical attention, basic education).
Although, not everything can be provided by the family
• Outside the family, man needs society to respond to these needs. In the past, these needs
were provided for by the family. Today, the bigger society provides for them.
• Three parts of the economic – producers, distributors, and consumers – work as a system
• There are market forces (e.g. law of supply and demand) that operates beyond our
personal decisions. The economy behaves structurally. It is a product of social elements
together.
• There are some things that need to be changed in the economic aspect when anomalies
(like injustices) arise. The cause cannot be pinpointed to one individual alone because its
nature is structural. Social injustices are brought about by a defect of the system itself.
Anomalies refer to the way the system itself works. Every individual is liable for social
injustices and a society must be changed if it becomes an avenue for injustices.
• Thus, change does not depend on an individual choice alone for it must be a systemic
event. Hence, the need for the political aspect.
2. Political
• The community organized such that it could come to common decisions facing common
problems using common resources.
• It is the capacity of the society to come to common decisions.
• Politics, in the good sense, is the capacity of society to come together and be able to act
as a community in response to certain problems like social injustice. Peace, order and
development of society are based on the holistic working of the three.
When individuals live together and form a community, a new social reality is formed beyond the
choices and decisions of the individual. The social reality imposes itself on the self.
One is born into a society beyond his own choice and awakens to the structures already present
in it (e.g. religion, language). Language is a product of society and not of individual decisions.
The social constitutes another aspect of our humanity. What we are now is largely formed by the
society as seen in physical structures and many other things in the society itself. The social is the
total combined effect of forces, and it cannot be traced to a single individual.
The social encompasses all human beings.
Three aspects of the social:
1. Economic
• Goods and services
• Man is a being of needs (food, clothing, shelter, medical attention, basic education).
Although, not everything can be provided by the family
• Outside the family, man needs society to respond to these needs. In the past, these needs
were provided for by the family. Today, the bigger society provides for them.
• Three parts of the economic – producers, distributors, and consumers – work as a system
• There are market forces (e.g. law of supply and demand) that operates beyond our
personal decisions. The economy behaves structurally. It is a product of social elements
together.
• There are some things that need to be changed in the economic aspect when anomalies
(like injustices) arise. The cause cannot be pinpointed to one individual alone because its
nature is structural. Social injustices are brought about by a defect of the system itself.
Anomalies refer to the way the system itself works. Every individual is liable for social
injustices and a society must be changed if it becomes an avenue for injustices.
• Thus, change does not depend on an individual choice alone for it must be a systemic
event. Hence, the need for the political aspect.
2. Political
• The community organized such that it could come to common decisions facing common
problems using common resources.
• It is the capacity of the society to come to common decisions.
• Politics, in the good sense, is the capacity of society to come together and be able to act
as a community in response to certain problems like social injustice. Peace, order and
development of society are based on the holistic working of the three.
