THE HUMAN PERSON IN SOCIETY

*How do individuals form societies?

*How individuals are transformed by societies?
- Our totality, wholeness, or “complete life”, relies on our social relations.
o Aristotle – friends are two bodies with one soul.
o Buber – I-Thou, the human person attains fulfilment in the realm of the interpersonal, in meeting the
other, through genuine dialog.

PRESENT DAYS – information days

- Gives more focus on computer hardware, software and systems in terms of contribution to society as the basic
tools enabling fast and efficient transfer of information.
- The emergence of portable computers enables many people to transact business everywhere.
o Social media, sites
However,
- Facebook and other social media might lead to depression.
o We post our smiling face, favourite food and perfect vacation.
o We look at idealized versions of our online friends and feel less attractive and insecure.
o We tend to compare how many likes our posts generated, due to comparison we become more
dissatisfied.
- Aside from that;
o We create the people we want to be or the ideal versions of ourselves in our Facebook profiles, then we
conform to a pattern.
o Not recognizing existing individuals.
o We are reduced to mediocrity.
o Our modern age remains an era of increasing dullness, conformity, and lack of genuine individuals.
- Social networking sites may disconnect users rather than connect people.
o LESSON: Do not limit interactions online; establish physical interactions with friends and family
beyond the digital world where one can truly find love, acceptance, and self-esteem.
- Life was much easier simpler before:
o ____________

*Compare different forms of societies and individualities

Medieval Period
Dark Age
Supremacy of the Christian Church (Monasticism)
Feudalism
Crusades

Medieval Period (500 – 1500 CE)

- It began in Europe (Rome) when Emperor Romulus Augustulus was overthrown.
o ROME
 Founded by Romulus
 First republic in history – the State had been more important than individuals
 Society: Patricians – rich, Plebeians – poor
 First Triumvirate ( Julius Caesar, Pompey, Cassius)
 Julius Caesar became the first dictator.
 Second triumvirate (Octavian, Lepidus, Mark Anthony)
 Augustus Caesar – Pax Romana (Golden age of Rome)
- Referred to as the DARK AGES
o Decline and stagnation of the West (fall of Rome and Byzantium)
o The Franks (Germanic tribal confederacy) rose to power and Charlemagne became the Holy Roman
Emperor – Puppet of the pope
- Supremacy of the Christian Church (Monasticism)
o Church was the strongest single influence in Europe center in Faith.
o St.Anselm: I do not seek insight to reason in order to believe, I believe in order to gain insight.
o Faith and reason
- FEUDALISM – socio-economic system based on land ownership by few wealthy people
- CRUSADES – military expeditions of Christians to take back the Holy land from the Muslims (Reconquista)
- BUBONIC PLAGUE – the black Death (killed 30% of Europe’s population)
- Ended with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, discovery of America “new world”
-
Modern Period (1 500 – 1800)
- Rejection of the Middle/Medieval age
- Began less than a decade before the arbitrary date Christopher Columbus had landed his ships in the “new world”
o Italian explorer who’s expedition was sponsored by king Ferdinand of Spain in 1492
o Discovery of America altering the politics of the world
- The renaissance
o REBIRTH- Revival of the Greek classic (liberal ideas) and Humanism
o AGE OF EXPLORATIONS
o Mercantilism- The wealth of the state is based on the gold and silver deposits it has.
o Columbus found America- named after Amerigo Vispucci
o Portugal held Asia and Spain held the Americas
- Philosophies of the world
o RATIONALISM- Reason
o NATURALISM- Laws of nature
 The nature is full of facts which conform fatally to exact and irreversible law, and second, the
human beings live best under a strong, benevolently dictatorial civil government
o MATERIALISM- The material brings happiness
o OPTIMISM (POSITIVISM)- Man have a bright future and continue to improve
o HUMANITARIANISM- The society should help the common welfare
- Age of revolution
o INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION- Rationalists Birth of Scientific thinkers- Francis Bacon-scientific method,
Rene Descartes, Galileo, Isaac Newton
o INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION- Realists Birth of Inventions. Replacement of human labor with machineries
o REFORMATION- Call to reform church beliefs
 Indulgence
- Payment for sin
- Disposition to do good
 Martin Luther- Greatest reformist
 Attack on the church that ruled those ages and dictated its ideas
 Initiation of Protestant ethics
o Political Revolution
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION-
 Struggle of the thirteen colonies to be freed from the British rule.
 Started as revolution against taxation till it became war for Independence
 America declared Independence (Declaration of Independence)
 George Washington became the first President
 American Civil War- Emancipation of Slaves
 FRENCH REVOLUTION-
 Deposed the King and started the reign of terror
 Used the Guillotine to execute “aristocrats”
 Napoleon Bonaparte (little corporal) became ruler of France- known as napoleon the Great which
created “Paris- City of Lights”
- Age of Empiricism
o The view that the origin of all knowledge is sense experience an sensory perception
o John Locke, David Hume, George Berkeley
- Beginnings of modern capitalism
- Human being is the most interesting in nature during the modern period
o The Vitruvian man by da Vinci
o The symmetrical proportion of the human body

Globalization