Summary of Lessons in UCSP (1-3)

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)

UNIT 1: The Origin and Nature of the Social Sciences: Anthropology, Sociology, and Political
science

Lesson 1: The Birth and Growth of the Social Sciences

The Historical Background of the Growth of Social Sciences

The development of the social science during the modern period was made possible by several
large scale upheavals and pivotal events. They can be summarized below.

Science Humanities

Pure Science Visual Arts
Applied Science Performing Arts

Social Science Religion

Law
Linguistics

History

The Unprecedented growth of Science

The following are the pioneers of the Scientific Revolution:

 Nicolaus Copernicus – proposed the Heliocentric theory
 Sir Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727) who proposed universal laws of motions and

mechanical model of the universe
 Sir Francis Bacon – established the supremacy of reason over imagination

1

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)

 Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who
is considered the father of modern philosophy. Descartes advocated the use of rigorous
philosophical analysis to arrive at truths rather than basing them on dogmas.

The Secularization of Learning and Education

 The triumph of Reason (specifically Western Reason) and science over dogma and
religious authority began with the Reformation. The protestant movement led by Martin
Luther eroded the power of the Roman Catholic Church.

 In the Age of enlightenment, philosophers led by Immanuel Kant challenged the use of
reason in order to know the nature of the world and human beings.

 During the Medieval Period, universities started to rely on science and its method to
interpret the world. Max Weber described this process as rationalization.

 Rationalization means that social life is more and more subject to calculation and
prediction.

 According to French sociologist Francois Lyotard, science triumphed because it provided
reliable results.

The Rise of Universities

 Merchants and capitalists supported universities and institutions of secular learning
because they became the hub of training future scientists, technocrats, and
technological innovators. Durkheim, one of the founding "fathers" of sociology, for
instance, lectured on the need to secularize education and base the curriculum on the
need of nation-state-to develop citizens necessary for the modern world (Collins 11).

The Dissolution of Feudal Social Relations
● The migration of agricultural workers and rural population to urban centers
● The effects of dissolution of feudal relations were studied by Ferdinand Tönnies (1855-
1936). He lamented the passing away of gemeinschaft or the rural community because
of the urbanization.
● Tönnies’ classic book Community and Society (1957) showed that in modern cities or
gessellshaft, individualism gave way to cold and calculated social relationships.

2

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)

Trade and Commerce
 Livres des merveilles du monde recorded the travels of Marco Polo, an Italian merchant
from Venice. This book introduced the Europeans to Asia and China, and inspired
Columbus five journeys to America (1492-1506). From Marco Polo's travels (1276-1291)
to Magellan's circumnavigation of the world (1519-1522), the travels of this period fed
the imaginations of the Europeans with vivid descriptions of places whose very
existence they had so far been unaware of. These travelogues had not only inspired
European merchants and governments to explore the non-Western world but also
provided the social scientists the raw data create a universal model of social
development.
 CHARLES TILLY - He believed that this was one of the major factors in the large scale
change in European history that also determined the direction of Social Sciences.
 HARRIET MARTINEAU - Her accounts shifted the attention of the West to non-western
world as a model of the early stage of Western civilization.
 GEORGE SIMMEL (1856-1918) - A German sociologist who decried the growing
depersonalization of life due to the introduction of money.

The Rise of Individualism
“The vast intensive and extensive growth of our technology which is much more than just
material technology entangles us in a web of means, and means towards means, more and
more intermediate stages, causing us to lose sight of our real ultimate ends. This is the extreme
inner danger which threatens all highly developed cultures, that is to say, all eras in which the
whole of life is overlaid with a maximum of multi-stratified means. To treat some means as
ends may make this situation psychologically tolerable, but it actually makes life increasingly
futile. (Source: Frisby, David and Mike Featherstone, eds. 1997. Simmel on Culture: Selected
Writings, p. 97. London: Sage.)

3

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)

The Birth of Social Sciences as a Response to the Social Turmoil of the Modern
Period

Sociology is 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.

Pioneers of Sociology:

AUGUSTE COMTE

- he coined the term ‘sociology’
- The father sociology
- he originally used ‘social physics’ instead of sociology
- Comte’s sociology has always been associated with positivism or the school of

thought that says that science is the only valid way of knowing things.
- Comte also suggested the three stages to the development of societies:

1. Theological stage - refers to explosion by personified deities
2. Metaphysical stage - is the extension of the theological stage.

Metaphysical stage refers to explanation by impersonal abstract
concepts.
3. Positive stage - also known as the scientific stage, refers to scientific
explanation based on observation, experiment, and comparison.

HARRIET MARTINEAU
- (1802-1976) was a writer, ethnographer, political economist, and sociologist. She is
considered as the ‘mother’ of sociology.
- Her accounts were expressed in How to Observe Morals and Manners (1838)

KARL MARX

- (1818-1883) is considered as the father of scientific socialism.

EMILE DURKHEIM

- (1858-1917) was the pioneer of functionalism in sociology

MARX WEBER

- (1864-1920) he stressed the role of rationalization in the development of society.
According to him, the greatest application of scientific way of life is in bureaucracy.
Because in bureaucracy, efficiency is considered as the supreme value, other values
such as relationships and human intricacies are gradually discarded.

4

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)

ANTHROPOLOGY
1. The study of human race, its culture, and its physical development.
2. It grew out of the encounters of social scientists with the non-Western world.
3. Patterned according to Darwin’s evolutionary theory that locates all societies in the

linear evolutionary process.
Pioneers of Anthropology:
FRANZ BOAS

- Father of American Anthropology
- His work is associated with the movements known as Historical Particularism and

Cultural Relativism.
Historical Particularism - According to this doctrine, each society is considered as having a
unique form of culture that cannot be subsumed under an overall definition of general culture.
Cultural relativism - the complexity of all culture whether primitive or not

BRONISLAW KASPER MALINOWSKI
- A Polish immigrant who did a comprehensive study of Trobriand Island.
- He coined the term “Participant Observation”

Participant Observation - It is the 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.
Ethnography - The practice of writing about people

ALFRED REGINALD RADCLIFFE-BROWN
- was an English social anthropologist who developed the theory of structural
functionalism

Structural Functionalism - society serves a purpose, and each is indispensable for the continued
existence of the others and of society as a whole.

5

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)

POLITICAL SCIENCE
1. Political Science is part of the social sciences that deals with the study of politics, power,

and government.
2. In turn, politics refers to "the process of making collective decisions in a community.

society, or group through the application of influence and power" (Ethridge and
Handelman 2010, p. 8).
3. Political Science studies how even the most private and personal decisions of individuals
are influenced by collective decisions of a community
Pioneers of Political Science:
1. Francis Lieber – organized Political Science around the concept of state
2. Lawrence Lowell – his work on Public Opinion and Popular Government, gave evidence
to the shift from state centered to pluralistic study of political science.
3. Walter Lippmann – wrote the Phantom of the Public
4. David Easton – his work, The Political System: An Inquiry into the State of Political
Science (1953), marked the shift of this discipline as an empirical science.
Pluralism – led to the emphasis on analyzing group interests rather than the state.

The Colonial origin of the Social Sciences
The Clamor for decolonization of Social Sciences

1898 US Political Cartoon. US
President William McKinley is shown
holding the Philippines, depicted as a
savage child, as the world looks on.

6

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)
Indigenization of Social Sciences of the Philippines
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

- Two leading exponents: Narcisa Paredes-Canilao and Maria Babaran-Diaz
Strategies for collecting information according to Sikolohiyang Pilipino:

1. Pagmamasid (observation)
2. Pakikiramdam (feeling your way through)
3. Pakikilahok (participation)
4. Pagtatanong-tanong (informal interview)
5. Pakikipagkwentuhan (informal conversation)
6. Sama-samang talakayan (focus group discussion)

7

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)

Lesson 2: Doing Research in the Social Sciences

Science and Common Sense

SCIENCE - is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world
following a systematic methodology based on evidence. Scientific methodology includes the following:
Objective observation: Measurement and data (possibly although not necessarily using mathematics as
a tool)

COMMON SENSE - sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts

Both science and common sense rely on fundamentally concrete modes of thought.

Instances when science debunks common sense:

Geocentric or Ptolemaic Theory

- named after Claudius Ptolemy, an Alexandrian astronomer
- The claim of the medieval theology that the center of the solar system is the earth.
- Supports the common sense observation that the earth is fixed and the sun goes around it

Heliocentric or Copernican theory

- is the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the center
of the Solar System

- was first proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus
- Galileo discovered evidence to support Copernicus' heliocentric theory when he observed four

moons in orbit around Jupiter

Trends debunked by science:

 Women are incapable of higher education
 Poverty is a result of divine predestination
 Homosexuality is an abnormality

The Emancipatory Potential of the Social Sciences

 It contributed to the elimination of prejudices against certain groups of people such as racism,
sexism, and cultural ethnocentrism

 It can also enable people to become open minded and welcoming of other beliefs and practices
no matter how foreign and alien.

 They can also help predict future events that would allow people to mitigate dangers, risk, and
casualties.

 Social Sciences like the natural sciences are revolutionary. They challenge the common sense
beliefs and refuse to follow unexamined traditions and claims based on authority (Bhaskar 2002)

8

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)
The Open System of the Social Sciences

 Open Systems cannot be totally controlled. This is unlike the close systems where the subjects
would be limited such as in laboratory or aquarium.

 Human beings are the subject of the social scientists for the study of culture, society, and
politics.

 Social sciences become more scientific in a way that it has the capacity to base generalizations
on empirical observation based on set theory.

Two Basic Methods in the Social Sciences
Social research refers to the methods and techniques that go into the investigation of the social
phenomena in order to understand and interpret the occurrence of such phenomena. In general, there
are two methods employed by the social scientists.

 Quantitative Method - According to Jeannette Garwood (2006), quantitative method refers to
research involving the collection of data in numerical form for quantitative analysis. The
numerical data can be durations, scores, counts of incidents, ratings, or scales.

 Qualitative Method - involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or
audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences.

9

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)
Ethics and Politics of Social Science Research
Scientists question the political nature of doing research. They asked controversial questions like, ‘Can
science be free of values and prejudices?’ ‘Should social research be politically neutral?’ These
questions were answered by those who work within the following:
Positivist Tradition – They believed that social research should not criticize existing social beliefs and
practices; instead it should only focus on describing accurately what is happening in the world. Social
scientists who belong to this tradition strongly advocated the use of quantitative method as it is not
easily manipulated and influenced by the prejudices and biases of the researcher.
Reflexivity – is the conscious effort of the social researcher to be aware of the social conflicts and power
struggle that underlie one’s subject of research, say, fraternity, violence, social movements, or body
tattooing, and to situate one’s self in the field of the power relations. Scientists who belong to the
humanistic tradition and those who advocate qualitative methodologies, advocate the use of this
concept.

10

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)

Lesson 3: Society as an Objective Reality

The Concept of Society as an Objective Reality

The term "society came from the Latin word societas, which in turn was derived from the noun socius
(comrade, friend, ally') used to describe a bond or interaction between parties that are friendly, or at
least civil. According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, human beings are zoon politikon or political
animals.

There is a common opinion among ordinary people that society does not exist except for the individuals
who compose it. This is the belief in methodological individualism.

Methodological Invidualism - states that collective concepts such as groups, associations, and societies
do not exist, but only individual members.

Sociological Realism - This theory argued strongly against methodological individualism. This states that
society is reality sui generis and cannot be reduced to individual or aggregate parts. This was proposed
by Emile Durkheim.

Suicide (1987)

- A book written by Emile Durkheim. In this book, Durkheim avoided the use of psychological and
individualistic explanation for the study of suicide. He rather looked into the statistics of suicide
rates and provided a sociological explanation for the persistence of suicide.

- If a group or society has a strong solidarity or sense of belongingness, the individual is most
likely to attach himself to the society.

- Strong regulation of the individuals in a society or group ensures that the members properly
follow the norms and the prescribed moral behavior.

- The situation in which society lacks social regulation through social norms is called anomie.

Social Reproduction or How Societies Persist

 The problem of explaining how societies manage to exist over time is called reproduction by the
French philosopher and sociologist, Louis Althusser.

 No society can endure over time if it does not support its own reproduction.
 There are two types of institutions that reproduce the condition of social life: ideological state

apparatuses and the repressive state apparatuses.

Ideological state apparatuses – are institutions that are created and used by society to mold its
members to share the same values and beliefs that a typical member of that society possesses.

11

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS (UCSP)

Repressive ideological state apparatuses – refer to the coercive institutions that use physical force to
make the members conform to the laws and norms of society like courts, police, and prisons

From a structural functionalist perspective, social reproduction is carried out through four functional
prerequisites as elaborated by the American sociologist, Talcott Parsons:

A-DAPTATION G-OAL ATTAINMENT
Organism Personality
L-ATENCY
I-NTEGRATION Culture
Society

 Adaptation or the capacity of society to interact with the environment. This includes, among
other things, gathering resources and producing commodities to social redistribution.

 Goal Attainment or the capability to set goals for the future and make decisions accordingly.
Political resolutions and societal objectives are part of this necessity.

 Integration or the harmonization of the entire society is a demand that the values and norms of
society are solid and sufficiently convergent. This requires, for example, the religious system to
be fairly consistent, and even in a more basic level, a common language.

 Latency, or latent pattern maintenance, challenges society to maintain the integrative elements
of the integration requirement above. This means institutions like family and school, which
mediate belief systems and values between an older generation and its successor.

12