UCSP

Three major scientific fields:

  • Sociology

  • Anthropology

  • Political science

Sociology

  • Study of human relationships and institutions

  • Its subject matter diverse from crime to religion and etc in the whole society

  • Unifying the subject matters helps us understand the human actions and consciousness that are shaped by surrounding cultural and social structures

  1. Auguste Comte

  • Father of Sociology

  • Coined the term “sociology” but its originally “social physics” that aims to discover the social laws that govern the development of societies

  1. Harriet Martineau

  • Mother of Sociology

  • An english writer and reformist

  • Have physical disabilities and tends to travel a lot especially in United States and wrote her travelogues

  • Wrote “How to Observe Morals and Manners” — in where ethnographic narratives are expressed

  1. Karl Marx

  • Father of Scientific Socialism

  • Further contributed to the development of sociology

  • Belonged to the realistic tradition that believes in the power of society and human beings

  • A sociologist who combined revolutionary activity with scholarly passion

  1. Emile Durkheim

  • Pioneer of functionalism in sociology

  • Made the proffesionalization by teaching it in the university of Bordeaux

  • Defended sociology as an independent discipline from psychology

  • Argued that society poses a reality class “sui generis” that is class by itself independent of individuals and institutions that composes it

  1. Max Weber

  • Pioneer of interpretive sociology

  • Stressed the role of rationalization in the development of sociology

  • Rationalization refers to disenchantment of the world.

  • As science replaced religion and people refused to believe in myths, modern individuals became dependent on science to order their lives.

Anthropology

  • The science of humanities

  • Studies the evolutionary history of homosapiens to the features of society and culture that decisively distinguish humans from other animal species

  1. Franz Boas

  • Father of American Anthropology

  • The first anthropologist who rejected the basis of racism or racial discrimination

  • He also rejected the popular western the idea of social evolution or the development of societies from lower to higher forms that is influenced by Darwin and in favor of historical particularism

  • This doctrine considers that each society has a unique form of culture that cannot be subsumed under an overall definition of general culture.

  1. Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski

  • An Anthropologist and Ethnographer

  • Developed what scientist now calls “participant observation” — a method that requires the anthropologist to have the ability to blend with the way of life in a given group of people

  • One of the most influential ethnographers (the practice of writing about people) in the 20th century

  • Ethnography often means anthropologists way of making sense of other people’s mode of thought since they usually study other’s culture than their own

  1. Alfred Regiland Radcliffe-Brown

  • An english social anthropologist that develop the theory of structural functionalism

  • Advocated the study of abstract principles that govern social change

  • Saw individuals as mere products of social structures and led to the establishment of structural-functionalist paradigm in anthropology

  • According to the view, the basic unit of analysis are the functions they perform to maintain the equilibrium of society

Political Science

  • Concerned chiefly in the analysis of political and governmental institutions and processes

  • Deals with the process of making collective decisions in a community, society, or group through the application of influence and power”, and even studies the most private and personal decisions of individuals

Other Fields of Social Science:

  • Archeology

    • The study of human pastusing material remains/artifacts (tools, clothing, and decorates)

  • Economics

    • Branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth

  • Geography

    • The study of places and the relationships between people and their environments, they usually explore the physical properties of earth’s surface and human societies spread across it

  • History

    • The study of past events, particularly in human affairs

  • Law

    • System of rules that is recognize by the country as regulating actions of members in which it may be enforced by the imposition of penalties

  • Linguistics

    • Study of language and it structure, morphology, syntax, phonetics, and semantics

  • Psychology

    • Branches includes: sociolinguistics, dialectology, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, historical-comparative linguistics, and applied linguistics

    • The study of mind and behavior of people according to the American Psychological Association

The Importance of Social Science

  • Without sociology, we won’t know why phenomena like bullying exist and wont understand how the norms are established

  • Without psychology, we won’t understand how the brain works

  • Without anthropology, we won’t know how the human society evolved

  • Without archeology, we won’t have solid and tangible evidence to support what we know of world history

  • Without history, we would be doomed to repeat every mistake of every civilization that has come and gone

  • Without economics, our understanding of finite resources of the world would be very limited

  • Without geography, we won’t appreciate how the world is interconnected in all aspects

  • Without law, there would be chaos

  • Without political science, politics would be chaotic and arbitrary

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS

Culture

  • Beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious or social group

  • Shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institutions or group

  • Set of values, conventions or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristics

    • The common thing that the three of them have is that culture is something that we shared and can be shared and it can be passed down in any groups and organization

The Characteristics of Culture

  1. Culture is learned — it can be learned from our environment

  2. Culture is based in symbols — this relies and uses symbolism, though meaning may be different ( ex. Swastika — from the word sanskrit which means “good fortune”)

  3. Culture is dynamic — its always changing

  4. Culture is integrated — its made up of many parts that if put all together it can make a one whole thing

Norms

  • It's something that is usual, typical, or standard, and norms are part of culture

    • Folkways — it governs casual conversation (po at opo)

    • Mores — differentiates the right and wrong, came from the word moral

    • Taboo — a strong negative norm (cannibalism and incest)

    • Laws — codified rules and regulations and if violated may result in punishment, it also governs the folkways, mores, and taboo

Conformity

  • Adjusting ourselves to match a particular group to feel belonged

    • Normative conformity — we ought to adjust ourselves if we want to be accepted in a group

    • Informational conformity — if in an unfamiliar situation, we simply don’t know how to act