The Notion Of Society As Held By Michel Freitag

Sociology is the study the different aspects of humanity and society. It encompasses a very broad and varying range of topics. It can be studied on a large world-wide scale spanning across several countries, which is called Macrosociology. It can also be studied on a small scale looking at only individual families or neighborhoods, which is called Microsociology. Not only does it peer into humans’ interactions with each other but examines why they act the way they do. It considers the environment, as well as how access to different luxuries can contribute to the people that we become. In this fascinating field there are three primary views on exactly what the fundamental driving force behind society is. Symbolic Interactionalism, the belief that symbols and the meaning that they are given, define how we will perceive life, in this philosophy these meanings are influenced by society and the events of individual lives. Functional Analysis, views society as any other organism, in this theory all parts of the whole must work together cohesively to function. Conflict theory takes a somewhat opposite view than Functionalism, this perspective suggests that rather than wanting to work in unison, society’s underlying motive is a power struggle for resources. Over the course of this paper the reader will explore these different perspectives.

In this sense, society relies on the reciprocal relations of humans. Society is derived from these reciprocal interactions and does not precede them. Society operates through our refraction and manifests through our actions. (Simmel) Building off a traditional Hobbesian view, human society is distinct from a ‘personal’ phase, rather it is deeply socially constructed. Society consists of interrelated activities in which humans can act in accordance with each other as well as against each other. Society is not a collection of individual humans nor a system of institutions. For Weber, society is in the interactions, not in the institutions. Society generates norms and values which influence human conduct, which is constantly being built through interaction. From the symbolic interaction perspective, there is no moral judgment placed on interaction.

In the essay, “The Common Life” by Scott Russell Sanders, Sanders studies the connection between the individual and society. However, this leads to the question, what is the relationship between the individual and society? Individuals and societies may be in opposition but this helps to develop both the individual and society. The decisions that an individual makes reflects on how society views him/her. The overlook of the community can be reverted back to the individual within the society. Society and individuals are a package deal.

In conclusion, social themes are what makes us a society and makes us human. Without social themes such as relationships, children, family, heroism, religion, leadership, humanity, hope, and discrimination we cannot say that we are a society. In any society we must have these elements. These elements make a society. As stated in this paper, we as a society interact with one another. Most of all we learn from each other. It is in that learning that we find understanding of society and how individuals operate. Without social themes or social understanding we would not be able to understand ourselves, not to mention society. “Therefore,” social themes are the things that drive us as individuals to live and interact with each other.

It is worth considering that each individual is developing within a society. That is why the role of the society in shaping people’s characters should not be underestimated. Numerous examples of the importance of the

First of all, in order to understand the three manners of society, this includes groups of people. In other words, people create groups in the social system, structural dependency and relationship through its activities, with the help of what they do and what they say. Society is not a specific team, but a kind of activity, facing itself in many different ways in different positions, communities, groups, which are formed at different levels. A society that

The social realm, where the life process has established its own public domain, has let loose an unnatural growth, so to speak, of the natural; and it is against this growth, not merely against society but against the growing social realm, that the private and intimate, on the one hand, and the political (in the narrower sense of the word), on the other, have proved incapable of defending themselves. (43)

“A picture is made up of so many square inches of painted canvas; but if you should look at these one at a time, covering the others, until you had seen them all, you would still not have seen the picture. There may, in all such cases, be a system or organization in the whole that is not apparent in the parts. In this sense, and in no other, is there a difference between society and the individuals of which it is composed; a difference not residing in the facts themselves but existing to the observer on account of the limits of his perception. A complete view of society would also be a complete view of all the individuals, and vice versa; there would be no difference between them.” Charles Horton Cooley, in “Human Nature and the Social Order”.

The society is not only a congeries of human beings but also a

The human kind come across all kinds of limitations in their daily lives: gates, doors, traffic, walls, etc… Our jobs, school, family and even social life (emotional or physical) may add to the ripple effect on ourselves. But imagine if we were jammed with all those limitations behind four tall walls, a bad, and maybe a toilet with a sink for 23 hours a day while only having somewhat fresh air for one hour in a caged space with an officer hovering over you, trigger-happy if you make one mistake. While we are currently living in the 21st century, we are still living amongst the ideals of the 17th and 18th century. Their social construction of society came across the expansion of the class structures because of the Industrial Revolution. As people were getting richer from these inventions, people were also getting poorer; this led to the growth of the capitalist society as the upper class saw more coming in. The innovative procedures of quick production pioneered because of the Industrial Revolution led to the significant surplus by exposing anybody that was not the upper class. This tarnished the lower and middle class and they had to by any means, provide for themselves and their family. A new form of science was coming to be – social science. Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx defied all odds and opposed the quality of society. Today, these two men influenced us all in one way or another, but they have yet to see what long-term solitary confinement is like today; studying their

The society than targets the emotional aspect of its residents as they are propelled into disregarding their emotions, feelings and sensitive side. The final sacrifice that the society compels people to make are at the moral front, when they are faced with situations with no other way out. Hence, the profoundly totalitarian system prevalent in the society pictured by the brilliant novelist is extremely dehumanizing on every level, be it physical, psychological or

Without socialization, humans would not possess the knowledge of language nor thought. James Baldwin stated in an article of the Saturday Review in 1963 that he believed “man is a social animal. He cannot exist without society.” Although man is highly dependent on and requires the presence of society for survival, society would not exist without members. While there are disadvantages to social settings, there are a large number of benefits to them as well. Numerous advantages include a higher sense of independence and individuality, a feeling of security, and an increased level of understanding and comprehension for mankind. This knowledge helps us recognize the reality of our present. We can gain insight to what humans have done in the past through studying our history. Regarding this information, we can grow and develop as a society through past behaviors by enhancing healthier lifestyles, preventing the disturbance of our environment, in addition to limiting the high number of extinctions, and more.

It is amazing to note that humans are a type of species that can smartly organize and form a community. Several of these communities create their cultural norms and beliefs that make their society a place to live. Willis, K. and Elmer, S. (2007, p3), defines society as the identifying pattern of behaviour, meanings and beliefs in order to uncover the links between individual lives and social forces.

Everyone has their own definition of what a “perfect world” would be. Richard Wasserstrom in “Sex Roles and the Ideal Society” states that in an assimilationist ideal society, a person’s sex should be as unimportant as eye color is in our society today.1 But should we just ignore a person’s sex all together to make the world equal? A different opinion from Phyllis Schlafly in “The Power of the Positive Woman” states that sex should be a relevant factor in family roles and social roles.² But should a person’s sex completely dictate what they can or cannot do within their family and in society? In this paper I will argue that Wasserstrom’s ideal society will not work because I think that eventually humans would naturally make general gender roles based on the different activities that each sex excels in. I agree, to some extent, with Schlafly’s that sex should be a relevant factor with reference to roles in the family and society. In my ideal society, there would be a balance in social and family roles, which would be based on an individual’s personal strengths and weaknesses. In this utopia, complete equality is possible, unlike in Wasserstrom’s and Schlafly’s.

“A socialisation theory is that, we are in effect, produced in childhood by social conditioning. It is only through this process that we become social, and because human beings are essentially social animals, this means that it is only through this process that we become fully human. More specifically we are socialised into understanding and accepting the conventional norms and values of our particular society, and becoming part of a culture; we are socialised into our particular roles, social status and social class; and according to some our own individual personality is also the result of the socialisation process.”