11

Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person – Grade 11

Quarter 1 – Module 12: Human Relationship as Transformed by Social
Systems
First Edition, 2020

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Introduction of Philosophy
of the Human Person 11
Quarter 4
Self-Learning Module 12
Human Relationship as
Transformed by Social
Systems
Introductory Message

For the Facilitator:

Welcome to the Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person Grade 11

Self-Learning Module on Human Relationship as transformed by Social System!

This Self-Learning Module was collaboratively designed, developed and

reviewed by educators from the Schools Division Office of Pasig City headed by its
Officer-in-Charge Schools Division Superintendent, Ma. Evalou Concepcion A.
Agustin, in partnership with the City Government of Pasig through its mayor,
Honorable Victor Ma. Regis N. Sotto. The writers utilized the standards set by the K
to 12 Curriculum using the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC) in
developing this instructional resource.

This learning material hopes to engage the learners in guided and independent
learning activities at their own pace and time. Further, this also aims to help learners
acquire the needed 21st century skills especially the 5 Cs, namely: Communication,
Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Character while taking into
consideration their needs and circumstances.

In addition to the material in the main text, you will also see this box in the
body of the module:

Notes to the Teacher

This contains helpful tips or strategies that
will help you in guiding the learners.

As a facilitator you are expected to orient the learners on how to use this
module. You also need to keep track of the learners' progress while allowing them to
manage their own learning. Moreover, you are expected to encourage and assist the
learners as they do the tasks included in the module.
 For the Learner:

Welcome to the Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person Self-Learning

Module on Human Relationship as Transformed to Social System!

This module was designed to provide you with fun and meaningful
opportunities for guided and independent learning at your own pace and time. You
will be enabled to process the contents of the learning material while being an active
learner.

This module has the following parts and corresponding icons:

Expectations - This points to the set of knowledge and skills

that you will learn after completing the module.

Pretest - This measures your prior knowledge about the lesson

at hand.

Recap - This part of the module provides a review of concepts

and skills that you already know about a previous lesson.

Lesson - This section discusses the topic in the module.

Activities - This is a set of activities that you need to perform.

Wrap-Up - This section summarizes the concepts and

application of the lesson.

Valuing - This part integrates a desirable moral value in the

lesson.

Posttest - This measures how much you have learned from the
entire module.
 EXPECTATIONS

In this lesson, the students are expected to:

7.3 Explain how human relations are transformed by social systems
a. Define what is social systems.
b. Discuss how human relations are influenced by social systems
c. Examine the element of social systems by which human relationship
are transformed.

PRETEST

Direction: Fill in the blank with the correct answer.

___________1. A social group is the primary basis of their mutuality. May be

in the beginning assumed or real common lineage, tribal affinity, family
benefit or the compactness due to a common to time inculcated between and
among the members in the group.
___________2. It what makes Man a Social Animal:

___________3. It influences social system components which manipulates

the relationships between two people of different beliefs.

___________4. He held that the individual was the recipient of group

influence and social heritage.

___________5. They regard the individual as formed by society through the

influence of such institutions as the family, school and
workplace.
 RECAP

THE FOUR-FUNCTION PARADIGM

the gaining of control over conditions in

environments of the system. Adaptive
ADAPTATION processes involve developing new resources
or improving allocations of resources to
strengthen a system’s capabilities and
the processes of organizing the efficiencies.
activities of social units to bring PATTERN
GOAL
about a valued state in the
system’s relationships to its ATTAINMENT MAINTENANCE
the processes of developing
environments, typically including
long-term commitment to
other social systems.
values and other principles
that distinguish the system
INTEGRATION from its environments.

the processes of mutual

adjustment among a
system’s components to
promote their long-term
dependence on one another
and attachment to the
system.

LESSON

HUMAN RELATIONSHIP AS TRANSFORMED BY SOCIAL SYSTEMS

Life was much simpler before. We as human may comprehend how

technology has evolved. From the medieval time to the Industrial Revolution
that was dominated by certain factors such as the discoveries of natural
resources and the usage of energy resources, innovative inventions of which
would improved the means of transportation, communication, and growing
interest taken by scientific and commercial circles of technology and
engineering.

Our totality, wholeness, or complete life relies heavily on our social

relations. According to Martin Buber, the human person attains fulfillment of
the realm of the interpersonal, in meeting the other through a genuine dialog.

Similarly, the human relations are also influenced and transformed by the
social system.
1) Religions are influencing social system components which manipulates
 the relationships between two people of different religions.
2) Cultural preferences also transform the human relationships in different
ways.

DEFINING SOCIAL SYSTEM

But what is social system? It is the patterned network of
relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals,
groups, and institutions. It is the formal structure of role and status that can
form in a small, stable group. An individual may belong to multiple social
systems at once; examples of social systems include nuclear
family units, communities , cities, nations, college
campuses , corporations, and industries. The organization and definition of
groups within a social system depend on various shared properties such as
location, socioeconomic status, race, religion, societal function, or other
distinguishable features.

Talcott Parsons was the first to formulate a

systematic theory of social systems, which he did as
a part of his AGIL paradigm. He defined a social
system as only a segment (or a "subsystem") of what
he called action theory. Parsons organized social
systems in terms of action units, where one action
executed by an individual is one unit. He defines a
social system as a network of interactions between
actors. According to Parsons, social systems rely on
a system of language, and culture must exist in a
society in order for it to qualify as a social
system. Parsons' work laid the foundations for the
rest of the study of social systems theory and ignited
the debate over what framework social systems
should be built around, such as actions,
communication, or other relationships.

Society is a system of usages, authority and mutuality based on “We” feeling

and likeness. Differences within the society are not excluded. These are,
however, subordinated to likeness. Inter-dependence and cooperation are its
basis. It is bound by reciprocal awareness. It is essentially a pattern for
imparting the social behavior.

On the other hand, social system, according to Charles P. Loomis, is

composed of the patterned interaction of visual actors whose’ relation to each
other are mutually oriented through the definition of the mediation of pattern
of structured and shared symbols and expectations.
All social organizations are, therefore, ‘social system’, since they consist of
interacting individuals. In the social system each of the interacting individual
has function or role to perform in terms of the status he occupies in the
system. For example, in the family parents, sons and daughters are required
to perform certain socially recognized functions or roles.

Social system is a comprehensive

arrangement. It takes its orbit all the diverse
subsystems such as the economic, political, religious
and others and their interrelation too. Social systems
are bound by environment such as geography. And
this differentiates one system from another.

Over the years, the human relations have transformed by social system
particularly on acquiring knowledge. An individual's entire scholarly make-
up bears the unmistakable engraving of the life of society in general. All his
handy exercises are singular articulations of the generally shaped social act
of humankind. The executes that he uses have in their structure a capacity
developed by a general public which predetermines the methods for utilizing
them. When handling any activity, we as a whole need to consider what has
just been accomplished before us.

RELATIONSHIP OF HUMAN TO SOCIAL SYSTEMS

The relation between individual and society is very close. Essentially,

“society” is the regularities, customs and ground rules of antihuman behavior.
These practices are tremendously important to know how humans act and
interact with each other. Society does not exist independently without
individual. The individual lives and acts within society but society is nothing,
in spite of the combination of individuals for cooperative effort. On the other
hand, society exists to serve individuals―not the other way around. Human
life and society almost go together.

Man is biologically and psychologically equipped to live in groups, in

society. Society has become an essential condition for human life to arise and
to continue. The relationship between individual and society is ultimately one
of the profound of all the problems of social philosophy. It is more
philosophical rather than sociological because it involves the question of
values. Man depends on society. It is in the society that an individual is
surrounded and encompassed by culture, as a societal force. It is in the
society again that he has to conform to the norms, occupy statuses and
become members of groups.

Though accurate information about the exact origin of society is not

known still it is an accepted fact that man has been living in society since
time immemorial. Long ago, Aristotle expressed that “Man is essentially a
social animal by nature”. He cannot live without society, if he does so; he is
either beast or God. Man has to live in society for his existence and welfare.
In almost all aspect of his life he feels the need of society. Biologically and
psychologically he compelled to live in society.
Man can never develop his personality, language, culture and “inner
deep” by living outside the society. The essence of the fact is that man has
always belonged to a society of some sort, without which man cannot exist at
all. Society fulfills all his needs and provides security. Every human took
birth, grows, live and die in society. Without society human’s life is just like
fish out of water. Hence there exists a great deal of close relationships between
man and society. Both are closely inter-related, interconnected and inter-
dependent. Relationship between the two is bilateral in nature. But this close
relationship between man and society raises one of the most important
questions i.e. in what sense man is a social animal? No doubt Aristotle said
so long ago. However, man is a social animal mainly because of the following
three reasons:

• Man is Social By Nature:

• Necessity makes Man a Social Animal:
• For The Development of Mind and Personality Man Lives In Society

Human cannot survive without society and societies cannot exist

without members. Still there may be conflicts between the individual and
society; one can imagine that social systems function better when they have
considerable control over their individual members, but that this is a mixed
blessing for the system’s members.

Likewise can competition with other societies strengthen the social

system, while wearing out its constituent members? This idea was voiced by
Rousseau (1769) who believed that we lived better in the original state of
nature than under civilization, and who was for that reason less positive about
classic Greek civilization than his contemporaries. The relation between
individual and society has been an interesting and a complex problem at the
same time. It can be stated more or less that it has defied all solutions so far.
No sociologist has been able to give a solution of the relation between the two
that will be fully satisfactory and convincing by reducing the conflict.

HOW SOCIETY AFFECTS THE INDIVIDUAL ?

What is the relation between individual and society? Early sociologists
such as Functionalists regard the individual as formed by society through the
influence of such institutions as the family, school and workplace.Herbert
Spencer, Emile Durkheim and even Karl Marx were functionalists, examined
society as existing apart from the individual. For Durkheim, society is reality;
it is first in origin and importance to the individual. Durkheim’s keen
discussion of the collective consciousness showed the ways in which social
interactions and relationships and ultimately society influence the
individual’s attitudes, ideas and sentiments. He utilized his theory of
“collective representation” in explaining the phenomena of religion, suicide
and the concept of social solidarity. In contrast to Auguste Comte (known as
father of sociology), who regarded the individual as a mere abstraction, a
somewhat more substantial position by Durkheim held that the individual
was the recipient of group influence and social heritage. In sociological circle,
this was the “burning question” (individual v/s society) of the day .
How society is important in the formation of individual’s personality is clearly
reflected in the cases of isolated and feral children (children who were raised
in the company of animals such as bears and wolves). The studies of feral
children, referred to earlier, have clearly demonstrated the importance of
social interaction and human association in the development of personality.

In order to interpret society in a wider sense, it is necessary to examine the

basic elements or characteristics which constitute society.

Society possesses the following elements

1. Likeness:
Likeness of members in a social group is the primary basis of their mutuality.
May be in the beginning assumed or real common lineage, tribal affinity,
family benefit or the compactness due to a common to time inculcated
between and among the members in the group the feeling of likeness. Likeness
means mutuality, and that means Society.
2. The Reciprocal Awareness:
Likeness is generative of reciprocity. Once some are aware of the mutual
likeness, they, certainly differentiate against those who are not like them. The
problem of likes and dislikes was concomitant to the social growth.
Consciousness of this kind alone could make sense of likeness. All social
action is based on reciprocal response. This alone, makes possible, the we-
feeling.
3. Differences:
Sense of likeness in not always sufficient. It alone is not adequate for social
organization. This does not exclude diversity or variation. The social structure
of humanity is based on the family which rests upon the biological differences
between the sexes, viz, men and women. The economic structure of society is
based upon division of labor in which the professions and economic activities
of people are different or dissimilar. The culture of society prospers with the
differences in thoughts ideals, viewpoints, etc. No two individuals are alike in
their nature.

They differ from each other in respect of their interests, capacities, abilities
and tendencies etc. These differences do not imply mutual conflict; instead;
by it the organization of society is further strengthened. A 100 per cent
organized society is not possible.

It is a myth. Society to run smoothly there must be some differences. If people

were exactly alike their social relationship would be very much limited. There
would be little reciprocity, little give and take. They would contribute very little
to one another.
A society based exclusively on likeness or uniformity is bound to loose in
socialites. Life would be boring, monotonous, prosaic and uninteresting if
differences are not present. We cannot imagine a society in which all people
are adults or all old or all young. Having realized the chaotic state of society,
the importance of differences will be apparent.

4. Interdependence:
Society implies interdependence. It is another essential element to constitute
society. It is not possible for human being to satisfy his desire in isolation.
He cannot live alone. He needs the help of others for his survival. Society
fulfills all the needs of the people. For example, the institution of family rests
on the biological interdependence of sexes. None of the two sexes is complete
by itself and, therefore, each seeks fulfillment by the aid of the other. This fact
of interdependence is very much visible in the present day society. Today not
only countries but also continents depend upon one another. Likewise,
communities, social groups and nations are also interdependent.

5. Cooperation:
Cooperation is also another essential element to constitute society. Without
cooperation, no society can exist. If the members of the society do not work
together for the common purposes, they cannot lead a happy and comfortable
life. Cooperation avoids mutual destructiveness and results in economy. In
the words of P. Gisbert, “Cooperation is the most elementary process of social
life without which society is impossible.”
For want of cooperation, the entire fabric of society may collapse. It is the very
basis of social life. C.H. Cooley has rightly remarked, “Cooperation-arises
when men realize that they have common interests. So great is the realization
of the necessity of cooperation on the part of every society, Kropotkin says, it
is difficult to survive without it.

6. Conflict:
Conflict is an ever present phenomenon present in every human society.
Not only cooperation but also conflict in necessary for the formation of society.
They must coexist in a healthy society. Conflict is a process of struggle
through which all things have come into existence.

George Simmel maintained that a conflict free harmonious society is

practically an impossibility. There is no denying the fact that society requires
for its formation and growth both harmony and disharmony, cooperation and
conflict. Robert M. Maclver rightly states that “Cooperation Crossed by
conflict marks society wherever it is revealed.

Besides these above elements, Maclver has also mentioned some seven other
elements of society such as, usages, procedures, authority, mutual aid,
groupings, controls and liberties.

Equally important are the changes that have taken place in the social
realm. traditional societies are typically close and rigid in their structure. The
members of each societies are primarily peasants. Modernization has changed
human relationships among societies. by rapidly strengthening the position
of some at the expense of others. At the same time societies has become more
interdependent and the conduct of their relationship has been transformed.
The more society is influenced by technology the more we need to consider
the social system and elements as well.

ACTIVITIES

Activity 1 ELEMENTS OF SOCIETY

Write down the elements of society according to the ff.

What society actually possess Robert M. Maclver

WRAP-UP

It was mentioned that religion was a factor in transforming human

relationship by society system. What do you think are the reasons Religion
can transform human relationship?

VALUING
As a Filipino, What traits have transformed by our social systems. Try
to enumerate and write a short essay entitled “Filipino Traits as Transformed
by Social Systems”
 POSTTEST
TRUE OR FALSE: Write T if the statement is correct and F if not

__________1. Man can never develop his personality

__________2. Society implies interdependence.

__________3. Cultural preferences also transform the human relationships in

different ways.

__________4. Emile Durkheim id the father of Sociology.

__________5. Human can survive without society and societies can exist
without members.

5. FUNCTIONALIST 5. F

4. AUGUSTE COMTE 4. F

3. RELIGION 3. T

2. NECESSITY 2. T

1. LIKENESS 1. T

PRE TEST POST TEST

References
“Human Relations In A Changing Society by Thomas L. Millard
*
F. M. Anayet Hossain , Md. Korban Ali
Relation between Individual and the Society F.M. Anayet Hossain, MD
Korban Ali
Parsons, Talcott. 1951. The Social System. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/social-system-meaning-
elements-characteristics-and-types/8524