Introduction of philosophy

1. Introduction of philosophy Social Philosophy

2. Social Philosophy • Social philosophy is the philosophical study of questions about social behavior. OR, Social philosophy explores philosophical questions about social issues and social behavior. And, it deals with wide range of subjects. • Social science is the field of study concerned with society and human behaviors. Sociology is the scientific study of society. The history of the social sciences begins in the roots of ancient philosophy but modern development came from age of enlightenment.

3. Main aspects of foundation of Society • Culture: It refers to the way of life, which includes what people do and what people have that has a particular meaning in their society. Culture is not only about what we see on the outside, but also includes what is inside (thoughts and feelings). Two types: material and non-material culture. • Society: Society refers to people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture. All human beings live in societies. Societies change ore evolve over time, and differ around the world in many important ways. • Socialization: Socialization refers to lifelong learning, through social experience, that contributes to the development of the personality and allows full participation in society. • Social interactions: The more we learn about the rules of social interaction, the better we can participate in society. Social interaction is essential process by which people act and react in relation to others. Some interactions that people face in everyday life are emotions and languages. • Groups and Organizations: A social group is two or more people who identify with and interact with one another. People carry out much of their daily lives as members of small groups (eg sport team) and large organizations (business). • Sexuality and Society: Sexuality is constructed by society and is an important part of our everyday lives. Although sexuality is biological, society shapes how we experience sexuality. Sexuality does not shape a person’s thoughts about himself/herself but also creates others’ thoughts on that person. • Deviance: Deviance is the recognized violation of social rules and cultural norms.

4. Sociological Perspectives

5. Symbolic interactionist perspective • The symbolic interactionist perspective directs to consider the symbols and details of everyday life, what these symbols mean, and how people interact with each other. • It is a micro level analysis because it focuses on individual patterns. • For example, considering institution of marriage, symbols may include wedding bands, vows of life-long commitment, white bridal dress, wedding cake, church ceremony, flower, music, wedding ring. • Critics claim that symbolic interactionism neglects the macro level of social interpretation. • Dramaturgy or Dramaturgical perspective is specialized symbolic interactionism developed by Erving Goffman seeing life as performance.

6. Functionalist perspective • According to the functionalist perspective each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society's functioning as a whole. • This theory sees the society as complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shapes society as a whole. • For example, the government, or state, provides education for the children of the family, which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. That is, the family is dependent upon the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can raise and support their own families. In the process, the children become law-abiding, taxpaying citizens, who in turn support the state. If all goes well, the parts of society produce order, stability, and productivity. If all does not go well, the parts of society then must adapt to recapture a new order, stability, and productivity. For example, during a financial recession with its high rates of unemployment and inflation, social programs are trimmed or cut. Schools offer fewer programs. Families tighten their budgets. And a new social order, stability, and productivity occur. •  A criticism for this approach is that it disregards any inequalities that exist within a society, which in turn causes tension and conflict and the approach.

7. Conflict perspective • The conflict perspective, which originated primarily out of Karl Marx's writings on class struggles, presents society in a different light than do the functionalist and symbolic interactionist perspectives. Social conflict is the struggle between segments of society over valued resources. • Conflict theories draw attention to power differentials, such as class, gender and race conflict, and contrast historical dominant ideologies. • While these latter perspectives focus on the positive aspects of society that contribute to its stability, the conflict perspective focuses on the negative, conflicted, and ever-changing nature of society. • Critics of the conflict perspective point to its overly negative view of society. The theory ultimately attributes humanitarian efforts, altruism, democracy, civil rights, and other positive aspects of society to capitalistic designs to control the masses, not to inherent interests in preserving society and social order.

8. Feminism • Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. The theory focuses on how gender inequality shapes social life. This approach shows how sexuality both reflects patterns of social inequality and helps to perpetuate them. Feminism, from a social conflict perspective, focuses on gender inequality and links sexuality to the domination of women by men.

9. Total institution • A total institution is a place of work and residence where a great number of similarly situated people, cut off from the wider community for a considerable time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life. •  The term was coined and defined by American sociologist  Erving Goffmain in his paper "On the Characteristics of Total Institutions" presented in April 1957. • The main point of the total institution is that many human needs of the entire bloc of people are under bureaucratic control. These needs are handled in an impersonal and bureaucratic manner. Total institutions are divided by Goffman into different types: • 1. Institutions established to care for people to be both harmless and incapable: orphanages, poor houses and nursing homes. • 2. Places established to care for people felt to be incapable of looking after themselves and threat to the community like mental hospitals. • 3. Institutions established the better to pursue some work like tasks: work camps, boarding schools, army barrack etc. • 4. Establishments designed as retreats also as training stations for the religious: abbeys, monasteries etc • 5. institutions organized to protect the community against what are felt to be intentional dangers to society: eg jail.

10. Positivism vs. Antipositivism • Positivism is based on the view that data derived from sensory experiences. • Positivism is a philosophy which is based on social as well as natural sciences and more in logical and mathematical treatments. • This theory was founded by Auguste Comte and developed by Saint Simon and Comte. They believe social reality is objective and it can be measured and discovered by scientific methods. • Grounded theory is a systematic methodology in the social sciences involving the generation of theory from data.

11. Durkheim Theory Durkheim, French Sociologist published a book Suicide on the basis of positivism theory. His findings are: • Suicide rates are higher in men than women • Suicide rates are higher for those who are single than those who are married • Suicide rates are higher for people without children than people with children • Suicide rates are higher among Protestants than Catholics and Jews • Suicide rates are higher among soldiers than civilians • Suicide rates are higher in times of peace than in times of war • Suicide rates are higher in Scandinavian countries • the higher the education level, the more likely it was that an individual would commit suicide, Types of suicide • Egoistic suicide: Not being integrated in a community • Altruistic suicide: Too much integrated in a community • Anomic suicide: Person is very much confused and lack of social direction • Fatalistic suicide: Person is excessively regulated from society

12. Antipositivism • Antipositivism based on the assumption that society can be linked with norms, values or symbols. Antipositivism is a theoretical position that rejects positivism; the application of empirical research in social sciences. • But, postpositivism, rather than being a rejection of positivism, is an amendment to positivism. • Some philosophers like Max Weber supported Antipositivism or interpretivism. Antipositivists hold that researchers should focus on understanding the interpretations that social actions have for the people being studied. • Whereas Anti positivism is a philosophy which says that society is subjective. It sees society as totally different from natural sciences. • Critical theory is any sociological theory that aims to critique and change society and culture, not simply to document and understand.