THE HUMAN PERSON IN SOCIETY

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THE HUMAN PERSON IN SOCIETY

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Student Name: ________________________________________ Year & Section: _______

Date Answer Sheets were Submitted: _____________________ Teacher: Dr. Eric Agustin

Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person:

An Examined Life is (Perhaps) Worthwhile

MODULES 13 & 14: The Human Person in Society

2nd Quarter, 1st Semester, SY 2021-2022

MELC-based Weeks 13 & 14

Learning Objectives (What a student needs to know)

In this module 13 & 14’s content standards, the student (“YOU”) should understand the interplay between the individuality of human beings and their social contexts. In addition, under this module 13 & 14’s performance standards, the learner should evaluate the formation of human relationships and how individuals are shaped by their social contexts. 

The most essential competencies are for you to: 

(7.1) Recognize how individuals form societies and how individuals are transformed by societies; 

(7.2) Compare different forms of societies and individualities (eg. Agrarian, industrial and virtual); and, 

(7.3) Explain how human relations are transformed by social systems.

A. Lesson Proper (What’s new?)

Introduction

An individual person is a separate, single human being distinct from a family, group, class, organization and other collective entities. As an individual person, you have self-hood (that is, individuality). You have individual aspirations, needs, rights, responsibilities, inter alia. Individual rights, for example, that are enshrined in the United Nations and the Philippine Constitution include, but are not limited to: protection/non-deprivation/right of/to life, liberty, and property (“The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines | govph” 2020), as well as, security of person (“Universal Declaration of Human Rights” 2015). 

Specifically, under the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every individual person is protected universally, among many, by these fundamental human rights:

“…recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”

Based on the references above, each individual has all the rights of a human person in relation to all of his/her kind.

Interplay Between Individualities and Social Contexts

A person has individuality or self-hood. In like manner, a person also has collectivity or other-hood since he/she lives in association with other people. His/Her self-hood remains the same; whereas, his/her other-hood is oftentimes influences by his/her milieu. Starting from birth onward, an individual child experiences enculturation where he/she is introduced and becomes familiarized with the process of observing, knowing, learning, adapting, and acquiring one’s culture, tradition, mores, and custom. He/she learns about his/her expectations, position, roles, and related behaviors in the community and larger society where he/she lives in. On the other hand, an individual person undergoes the process of acculturation when he/she has the motive to learn, adopt and adapt to a more dominant culture, such as a Filipino migrant who has to live in an American soil – or any foreign land, for that matter. When such a Filipino wholly embraced a foreign culture after a long time as if it is already his/her own native culture, assimilation occurs. Hence, an individual’s unique selfhood as a human person can never be subsumed under any social contexts, except perhaps one’s other-hood or collective belongingness.

How Human Relationships are Formed and How Social Contexts Transform Individuals

Even when an individual child is still in his/her mother’s womb, an attachment/bond is formed even in his/her earliest development as a human being. Continuously throughout an individual person’s lifetime, typically, he/she forms human relationships. A baby is a child to his/her parents. A child may also be a sibling to his/her brothers and sisters. As a playmate, he/she can be a friend, too. In school, a person can also form bonds with his/her classmates to become his/her business partners after college. While being a married individual, he/she can be a spouse and parent to his/her children. As an individual person continues to work before retirement, he/she can be a colleague, co-worker, boss, etc. to others in the same company. In a nutshell, an individual human being has a variety of positions and roles to play in various social contexts throughout his/her life’s continuum. The possibilities are endless as to who he/she would become as he/she progresses in life. The need for an individual to have interrelations with others is an innate individual ability and social sensibility. Generally, to top it up, most individual persons need a long-lasting, healthy and loving relationship no matter what the social contexts may be.

Different Types of Societies

According to Dr. Nestor Rodriguez (2020), there are five (5) types of societies:

1. Hunting-gathering society is the earliest of human society. Their size is known as a family band. As nomadic or wanderer people, most of the time, they are food seekers. Since time immemorial, they are the longest lasting of all the types of society.
2. Horticultural society is a semi-nomadic family clan or village that number in less than to several hundreds of individual inhabitants. Their domestications of plants and animals as a main source of their food is primarily a social effort. Aside from gender-based division of labor, they also have developed religious and military leaders.
3. Agrarian society consists of multi-ethnic, large communities and even cities. There is a large division of labor given their large-scale agriculture. Every sector – public/government to the private religious, business, etc. – they have roles in various farming/agricultural implements and technologies. 
4. Industrial society refers to nation-states with mega-populations and advanced technologies (such as, factories, machineries) in various fields/industries (for examples, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transport, retail, finance, and a lot more.) Only a meager number from its total population is involved in food production. They also harness the power of technology to their advantage to destroy other societies.

Although not included among Dr. Rodriguez’s types of society, other experts include the post-industrial society whose prominence is on its information and communications technology and service sectors (key thinkers, intelligent technology designers and users) that generate more wealth than those in the industrial society (such as in the manufacturing of goods) (“Postindustrial Society | Britannica” 2020; “Post Industrial Society” 2020). 

How Social Systems Transform Human Relations 

First, let us define what a social system is. According to many experts, a social system is an orderly, interrelated part of society each of which has functional roles to play. Like the human body for society, it has many parts and subparts/sub-systems (such as, digestive, circulatory, respiratory, etc.). Each part and sub-system has active roles to play for society to live and subsist. So, how do social systems transform human relations?

Well, just as societies are formed by individual human efforts; societies in turn mold individual human beings. A human person is innately a social being with social needs, aspirations, expectations, goals, and the like. Because of his/her innateness for belongingness, he/she forms or becomes involved in a group. There are many for his/her sociality – whether it be personal or social. Personally, he/she simply wants to belong; on the other hand, socially, he/she needs to be in his/her kind.

For social systems to transform human relations, it requires a dynamic force. Either you belong to a system or not. If you belong, you get the benefits for you as an individual. If not, its extreme form is ostracism. Because a human person becomes part of a social system, he/she is expected to behave accordingly. As such, he/she is bound by the rules, norms, standards, and related requirements of the society where he/she belongs. As the individual mingles with members of the social system, each of the individual members influences the relations between or among them. There is power use, power maneuver, power tripping, power wielding, and all sorts of power for human relations to be transformed by social systems.

Summary/Generalization (What a student learned so far?)

The human person in society is the most essential entity. Individual or self-hood is uniquely its own, but may be influenced by other-hood or collective whole. Despite the individual human person in society, it has its innate and inalienable rights protected by national and world government. Since an individual is bound by the social context, normally, he/she interacts with it throughout his/her life.

As individuals create human relations, they are consequently transformed into social beings. Through enculturation, acculturation, and assimilation, a person becomes familiarized with his/her social environment, whether that environment is a hunting-gathering, horticultural, agricultural, industrial, or post-industrial society.

No matter how we see individuals create societies and are transformed by them, they have their self-hood combined with other-hood.

B. Written Task (Quiz)

Multiple Choice: Instruction: Choose the correct or “best” answer by encircle your letter of choice. 

1. Is defined as a separate, single human being distinct from an aggregate of people.

1. Individual human person
2. Family
3. Class
4. Collective entity

2. Which of the universal, fundamental human rights of individual persons are protected by most nations? 

1. Right to life
2. Right to liberty
3. Right to property
4. all of the above

3. The firsthand familiarization of a human person to his/her particular culture is known as _____.

1. Enculturation
2. Acculturation
3. Assimilation
4. None of the above

4. The process whereby an individual person’s culture has been subsumed to a more dominant culture.

1. Enculturation
2. Acculturation
3. Assimilation
4. None of the above

5. The total embracing of another culture as if it is already his/her own native culture?

1. Enculturation
2. Acculturation
3. Assimilation
4. None of the above

6. Generally, human beings are innately bond by sociality. Which does not exhibit such social bond/attachment?

1. A child whose parents died at a young age naturally.
2. A parent who worked all his/her life to provide love to his/her special child.
3. A bystander who does not care to much about being a family man.
4. An indigenous person who excelled in his/her law studies for his/her family and tribe.

7. This society is the most advanced so far given its information technology and service sectors.

1. Horticultural society
2. Agrarian society
3. Industrial society
4. Post-industrial society

8. This society boasts mainly of its advanced technologies, such as factories and machines.

1. Horticultural society
2. Agrarian society
3. Industrial society
4. Post-industrial society

9. In which one of the following situations does NOT describe how a social system transforms a human individual?

1. A person is born into a community and acquires its culture, traditions, and the like.
2. A person lives as a hermit away from other people and civilization until his/her last breath.
3. A person marries an foreign man/woman, rears their children, and put up a charitable institution later in life.
4. A community of learners and practitioners in the field of education gather annually to celebrate the World’s Day of Open Learning and Achievements.

10. Why is a social system likened to a human body?

1. A human body is a masterpiece like Monalisa.
2. A human body has parts and subsystem with individual and collective roles and functions. 
3. A human body lives and dies so it must be taken cared of no matter what.
4. A human body is a physical entity whose aching parts must be replaced with better parts.

C. Performance Task

Performance Task: Collage about “Universal Human Right to Life and Its Relation to Capital Punishment”

Make a collage about the ‘universal human right to life as it relates to capital punishment / death penalty’s  pros and cons to an individual human person.’ Remember to include a general description under your collage. Good luck!

Note: Before making a collage, please refer to the criteria below:

Generic Grading Criteria for Collage Making

40% Originality 20% Creativity 20% Craftmanship 20% Balanced Treatment of the Topics

(Please use additional sheet, whenever necessary)

Answer Key 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.