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The Social Sciences:

Sociology,
Anthropology, and
Political Science
Social Science 12
The Social as “Driver of Interaction”

▪ The study of society can be accomplished in three (3) different ways:


1. By mapping the social forces impinging on social actors as their lives intersect
in society;
2. By rehearsing the structures and components of cultural practices and
traditions;
3. By exposing the asymmetrical power distributions among members of social
communities and organizations.

▪ Goal: to understand the dynamics of social interactions in society.

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The Social as “Driver of Interaction”

Disciplines and their foci


▪ Sociology – if the perspective highlights the external influences that
facilitates or constrain human actions.
▪ Anthropology – if the perspective underlines the role of cultural
structures in organizing human interactions.
▪ Political Science – if the perspective zeroes in on power relations and
how these produce layered modalities of opportunities among social
actors.

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Sociology – The Study of the
Social World
The Social Sciences

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Sociology

▪ The study of society, social institutions, and social relations.


Sociology is interested in describing and explaining human behavior,
especially as it occurs within a social context. It is less interested in
the individuals than in the group to which they are part.

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Sociology

▪ Through sociology, we gain understanding of how the social world


operates and of our place in it. C. Wright Mills (1959) call it the
sociological imagination which he defined as “the vivid awareness of
the relationship between private experience and the wider society.”

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Sociology

▪ Sociology’s point of view is distinct from other sciences. Peter Berger


explains that the perspective of sociology enables us to see “general
patterns in particular events.”
▪ Sociology also enables us to see the “strange” in the familiar. This
means detaching ourselves from common explanations by taking a
new look at society. Human behavior is not simply a matter of what
people decide to; society shapes our thoughts and deeds.

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Sociology

▪ Sociology focuses on the ubiquity of social forces in unlikely forms:


– Sex
– Gender
– Religion
– Class
– Race
– Ethnicity, and the like

▪ Social forces represent a constellation of unseen yet powerful forces


influencing the behavior of individual and institutions

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Sociology

▪ Social forces
– any human-created way of doing things that influence, pressure, or force people
to behave, interact with others, and think in certain ways.
– are considered remote and impersonal because mostly people have no hand in
creating them, nor do they know anyone who do or did.
– are normally in the guise of rules (written and unwritten), norms and
expectations.
▪ The influence of these three is normally taken for granted and assumed to be natural.

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History of Sociology as a Science

▪ Sociology emerged with the two of the most significant social and
political revolutions in the history:
– The French Revolution of 1789
▪ Influenced by new political ideas from France and America
▪ Created negative sentiments vs the monarchy, shift to democracy
– Industrial Revolution in England (18th century)
▪ Brought about by the invention of the steam engine
▪ Countryside folks were pushed into towns
▪ Lands were taken away by landlords, shift to factory-based economy

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Early Sociologists

▪ Auguste Comte (1798-1857)


– “invented” sociology (1842), socius – companion, logy – study
PROPOSITIONS/BELIEFS:
– Society should be analyzed as it really was (vs the ideal state)
– Favored POSITIVISM (understanding the world based on science)
– Society operates according to certain laws, just as the physical world operates
according to gravity and other laws of nature

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Early Sociologists

▪ Karl Marx (1818-1883)


– Forerunner of the CONFLICT THEORY
– Authored the Communist Manifesto (with Friedrich Engels, 1847), discusses the
misery of the lower classes caused by the existing social order
PROPOSITIONS/BELIEFS:
– Political revolution was vital in the evolutionary process of the society, the only
means to achieve improvement of social conditions.
– Conflict, revolution, and the overthrow of capitalism were inevitable.
– The bourgeoisie (middle class and the owners of the factories) would be
overthrown by the proletariat (the factory workers) because they could no longer
contain their frustration over the treatment that the former inflict on them.

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Early Sociologists

▪ Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)


– Associated with the birth of sociology in England
PROPOSITIONS/BELIEFS:
– Society is an organism with a life and vitality of its own.
– “Survival of the Fittest” – the policy of noninterference in human affairs and
society.
– Doing something to help the weak, poor, and needy would interfere with the
natural selection process.
– Society gets better as time passes.
– His ideas justified the enslavement of the Blacks
– His inhuman philosophy was met with strong resistance, eventually leading to
its demise.

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Early Sociologists

▪ Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)


– First French Sociologist
PROPOSITIONS/BELIEFS:
– Individuals are products rather than the creator of society.
– Society is external to the individual.
– Proved that social forces strongly impact on people’s lives and that a seemingly
personal event is not personal after all. (Suicide)

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Early Sociologists

▪ Max Weber (1864-1920)


– The most important proponent of interpretive sociology.
PROPOSITIONS/BELIEFS:
– A “sympathetic understanding , verstehen, of the mind of others” was essential
to understanding the behavior of others.
– Qualitative, subjective methods as well as objective, quantitative methods
should be used in the study of social actions.
– His works dwelt on the significance of subjective meanings people give to their
interactions with others.
– Asserted that religion is very influential in the actions and thoughts of people.

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Sociology in the Philippines
Sociology – The Study of the Social World

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Sociology in the Philippines

▪ Sociology in the Philippines developed in three (3) phases:


– First Phase:
▪ Sociology was looked upon as social philosophy
– Second Phase:
▪ Sociology was viewed as a problem or welfare-oriented discipline
– Third Phase:
▪ Sociology started to take the scientific orientation

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Sociology in the Philippines

▪ FIRST PHASE: As social philosophy


– This orientation started with the inclusion of sociology in college and university
offerings and taught as social philosophy. It was introduced by Fr. Valentin Marin
when he initiated a course on criminology at the University of Sto. Tomas. There
was little emphasis on the scientific nature of sociology.

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Sociology in the Philippines

▪ SECOND PHASE: As social problem or welfare-oriented discipline


– Sociology was seen as a field in which the focus is on analyzing poverty, crime,
unemployment, and other problems that plague society. This view was put
forward by Serafin Macaraig, the first Filipino to acquire a doctorate in sociology
and the first to write a sociology textbook, in An Introduction to Sociology
published in 1938. Very little social research was done

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Sociology in the Philippines

▪ THIRD PHASE: As scientifically-oriented discipline


– This started with the increased number of educational exchange program
grantees, establishment of social science research centers and councils, growing
frequency of conferences, and publication of professional journals. Public and
private agencies became increasingly aware of the significance of social facts in
the decision making process. The data collected for the government by pioneer
Filipino sociologist Benicio Catapusan on rural Philippines became the
benchmark for the distribution of economic aid to the different regions.

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Anthropology – The Holistic
Study of Humanity
The Social Sciences

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Anthropology

▪ The science which seeks to “uncover principles of behavior that apply


to all human communities.”
▪ Anthropology focuses on human diversity around the world. It
intensively studies humans and the respective cultures where they
were born and actively belong to.

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The Focus of Anthropology

▪ Anthropology looks at diversity as a frame of reference for


understanding any single aspect of life in any given community.
▪ This science looks at cross-cultural differences in social institutions,
cultural beliefs, and communication styles. It seeks to promote
understanding between groups by “translating” each culture to the
other.

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The Focus of Anthropology

UNIVERSAL
CULTURE CULTURE
UNIVERSAL

Which is the focus of Anthropology?

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The Focus of Anthropology

• A single culture,
Universal characterized by cultural
Culture artifacts that appear the
same or similar everywhere

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The Focus of Anthropology

• In many cultures, this is


Culture characterized by patterns of
Universal similarity within an array of
differences.

This is the focus of Anthropology. Remember, as Anthropology


acknowledges and focuses on human diversity, it does not look for a
single, uniform culture, but zeroes in on the similarities of different
cultures.
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The History of Anthropology

▪ This science has been called as a “child of colonization.”


▪ The discipline had its beginnings with early European explorers and
their accounts which produced initial impressions about the native
peoples they encountered in their explorations.
▪ Discoverers of new territories were always accompanied by
missionary documenters. The primary function of these documenters
was to record, to the minutest details, all their observations and
reflections about the conquered territories, their people, practices,
language, rituals, etc.

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The History of Anthropology

▪ The history of anthropology suggests two essential things about the


discipline and its capacity to represent the social:
– (1) its “methodology” of documenting 0ne’s engagement with a different
culture, and
– (2) its fascination with the ways of life in different societies

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The History of Anthropology

▪ Documenting one’s engagement with a different culture is called


Ethnography. This can either be a research design or a specific
research method where people are observed in their natural
environment rather in a formal research setting.

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Forms of Diversity: Social
and Cultural
Anthropology – The Holistic Study of Humanity

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Social and Cultural Diversity

▪ Cultural diversity refers to a range of different societies or people of


different origins, religions, and traditions all living and interacting
together.
▪ Social diversity refers to the gaps between people as measured by
the presence or absence of certain socially desirable traits.

What makes humans diverse become the basis of their


assessment with regards to rewards and social standing in society.

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Cultural Diversity

▪ The bases of diversity are culturally dictated such as skin color,


language, and ethnicity. They represent ways of life that are
determined by their respective geographies, environments, and
ecologies.
▪ The food that we eat, the words that we use to communicate, and
even the lifestyle that defines our individual personalities are
manifestations of the richness of cultural influences.

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Cultural Diversity

▪ Cultural diversity is not only a situation between and across nations


as is usually the case; it can also be a stark demographic
phenomenon in countries characterized by pan-nationalities.

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Social Diversity

▪ Social diversity is an ever present and enduring feature of all known


cultures around the world from the most primitive to the most highly
urbanized.
▪ There are plenty and mixed explanations of social diversity which
offers justifications as to why its persists over time.

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Social Diversity – Perspectives of the
Social Sciences

▪ In Sociology, this is referred to as social inequality (or social


stratification). This occurs when resources in a given society are
distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation that
engender specific patterns along the lines of socially defined
categories of persons. It is normally the end result of social diversity.

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Social Diversity – Perspectives of the
Social Sciences

▪ Sociologists attribute the persistence and omnipresence of social


inequality to the beneficial functions it provides for the overall
operation of the society. This is exemplified by the merit system (of
giving incentives) and division of labor (of diverse skills and
expertise).

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Social Diversity – Perspectives of the
Social Sciences

▪ Political Science explains social inequality as a product of an


asymmetrical distribution of power in society. The distribution of
power is seen as contingent to and necessary for the governance of
social relations. For political science, the clearest manifestation of
power relations is the existence of the state, which may be seen as a
legitimate mediator of societal tensions, as well as of social
integration

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Social Diversity – Perspectives of the
Social Sciences

▪ Anthropology takes account of the “equal but different ways” of how


people live in the world. The “difference dimension” is seen as
representing the culture’s inherent value, hence it is essential to the
appreciation of the culture sui generis, while the “equal dimension” is
interpreted on the basis of the logic that the same appraisal can be
used to judge even influential and renowned cultures.

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Political Science – The Study
of Politics
The Social Sciences

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Defining Politics

▪ The definition of politics depends on one’s


perspective in such a way that a person’s principle
may affect his view on politics. Generally, politics is
associated with how power is gained and employed
to develop authority and influence on social affairs.

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Defining Politics

▪ It can also be used to promulgate guiding rules to


govern the state. It is also a tactic for upholding
collaboration among members of a community.

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Defining Politics

Politics is the

Virtuosity of
Governance
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The Concept of Politics

▪ Politics is allied with government which is


considered as the ultimate authority. It is the
primary role of the government to rule the society
by stipulating and transmitting the basic laws that
will supervise the freedom of its people.

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The Concept of Politics

POWER ORDER JUSTICE

• The ability • This is • This is felt


to attained in a
influence through society
others. It obedience with order
gives on the
authority rules set
to lead. by leaders

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The Concept of Politics

▪ The process being exercised by the government in


its implementation of its duty is what we call
politics.

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Politics as an Art

▪ When we talk of art, we look at the style, character,


behavior, preference, language, and culture. In
considering these, politics is an art. Politics is played
with a style depending on the character and
behavior of the leader. The constituents choose
their leader based on their preference. Leaders use
their charisma in influencing the people.

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Politics as a Science

▪ Science is commonly defined as the knowledge


derived from experiment and observation
systematically done. Policy-making and
government decisions are done through research,
investigation, analysis, validation, planning
execution, and evaluation. Thus, politics is a
science.

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Political Science

▪ Political Science is the systematic study of


government and politics. It makes generalizations
and analyses about political systems and political
behavior and uses these results to predict future
behavior (as in elections and similar processes
where predicting behaviors are important).

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Political Science

▪ Political Science includes the study of political


philosophy, ethics, international relations, foreign
policy, public administration, and the dynamic
relations between different parts of the
governments.

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Political Science

▪ Political Science assumes the asymmetrical power


relations of members of society but problematizes
the unjust and unfair effects of such relations
manifested in matters related to governance.
Power relations are forms of interaction mediated
by the use and deployment of authority and
political influence.

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The Story of Political Science

▪ Political Science is the discipline that problematizes


the nature of power and studies how possession
and exercise of power can shape individual actions
and collective decisions for that matter.

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The Story of Political Science

▪ This is a form of “social agreement” because they


have futuristic and lasting effects in people’s
collective lives. In this view, the discipline was
traditionally believed to have emerged from the
works of “social contract” theorists.

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The Story of Political Science

▪ These social thinkers argued for the existence of the


state in order to create a community of citizens free
from the brutalities of the state of nature, where
every man is enemy to each one. The contract
requires the people to surrender, completely or in
part, their rights to whoever (a persona) or
whatever (an office), who or which, in return,
exercise the same for the protection of everybody.
▪ THE STATE EMERGED OUT OF THE CONTRACT.

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The Story of Political Science

▪ Political Tasks:
▪ First Task: establishment of a political community
▪ Second Task: fulfillment of the roles of the parties
▪ Third Task: bringing back of the individual to the
political domain

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