DISCIPLINE AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

UNIT 1: HOW SOCIALIS SCIENCE AND HOW SCIENTIFIC IS SOCIAL?

CHAPTER 1: HOW DID SOCIAL SCIENCES EMERGE? HOW DOES IT LINK TO THE NATURAL
SCIENCES?
What is modernity? What does its role in the development of social science?

UNDERSTANDING MODERNITY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

 In the 2012 London Olympics the spectacular opening rites highlighted a
dominant theme- the rise of Britain from a mainly feudal and rural country to
become a major industrial force in the world by the end of 19th century.
Modern British society was not only created with a group of elite visionaries
and statesmen but also by ordinary laborers and factory workers who toiled
under harsh condition to transform an idyllic countryside to a populated,
factory-laden, and smoke-emitting city of chimneys and steam engines. In
other words, modernity in that country was a result of various forces:
changes in the people’s values and work ethics, economics and technological
breakthroughs, and political turmoil.

MODERNITY
 Physical material conditions of society but also with a mental and behavioral shift
among people.
Hence, the modern times as how modernity is referred to in popular language-is
characterized by the presence of urbanism and capitalism. Western society evolved for a
largely feudal states to a modern, industrial, and capitalist state.
Social and cultural innovations promoting rational control and order in society. By the end
of 19th century, we have seen a lot of new, modern nation-states emerging out of the
former Western empires and monarchic power and traditions. These nation-states are now
industrialized, independent, and possess significant military prowess. Modernity has
become a blueprint of the society that promotes individualism and, in the words of Emile
Durkheim, organic solidarity or interdependence among its segmented residents of the city.
Durkheim a French social thinker of the early 20th century and considered the “Father of
sociology and anthropology”. The foundation of modern social science interdependent on
the basis of having specialized yet complementary work or activities. Society should always
strive to be coherent and orderly, and its only happens when each part of a bigger whole
does its job or task.
FUNCTIONALISM
 This concept of society performs certain functions that in the end contribute to the
overall health of society thus, preserving itself to posterity to maintain peace and
cooperation just like in ethnography of the factory where roles are segmented and
differentiated in order to maximize the productive power of mass manufacturing,
people in the city also need to be another person’s activity.
“society and community” may seem ordinary terms, but, in the social sciences, they are big
ideas that have steered the emerging discipline into full-blown academic inquiry in the late
18th century to early mid-19th century.
SOCIETY
 Represents the idea of a modern, urbanized, capitalist and geographically and
demographically complex society that characterizes the newly emerged nation-states in
the west.
COMMUNITY
 On the other hand, is smaller in geographical and demographic scope, communal in
social relations, and traditional in behavior and worldview.

BRINGING POSITIVISM TON, THE FORE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

POSITIVISM
 Comes from the French word positivisme, which is derived from the root word positif,
and denotes that something is arbitrarily imposed on the mind by sensory experience.
Positivism believes that scientific thought is a superior knowledge than superstitions and
religion, and it is achieved through an objective and empirical analysis of a
phenomenon. They could not be proven empirically retinal thought in uncovering
hidden processes and structures in society as a better, improved and democratic society
due to science-as opposed to the old ways and habits of the previous society dominated
by the church and the aristocracy and a function of an increasing rational mind.

WHAT IS “SCIENCE” ANTD THE “SOCIAL” BEHIND THE STUDY OF SCIENCE?

 The term social science is a body of knowledge characterized by an objective understand
what society is and what does it do to people living inside it.

SCIENCE
 Is also a key of idea in the said rubric of disciplines? Social science emerged in European
intellectual tradition. We say here “most” because eventually as this book will
demonstrate, scientific knowledge will be challenged including the very idea that an
objectivist and an empiricist taken on phenomenon is ever possible. Social sciences
appear in various labels and configurations in academic setting. It is fused with arts and
 humanities, the idea of examining and celebrating human side of our social existence,
enters our discussion. On the other hand, an imaginative, creative, and “humanist” side
of social analysis.
Social science disciplines most associated with humanities are the fallowing: history
anthropology, (including archeology), and linguistics because they all deal with the
human past and touch on the meaning of being human.

THEORIZING SOCIETY THROUGH SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINE

 Social science disciplines pose different questions but they actually observe a common
social phenomenon-everyday life events and activities that involves people and affect
people living together in a particular society. The aim of everyday social science is to
characterize the nature of being human. Anthropology deals with the nature of human
beings, both from biological and cultural point of view. For anthropologists, culture is a
key factor that shapes human nature and that this culture is conditioned by both natural
and social environment.
Defining academic disciplines can prove to be a difficult activity since all of them would
have multiple definitions and explanations.

ANTHROPOLOGY
 “Anthropos” (human) “logos” (study of)
DEMOGRAPHY
 “demos” (people) “graphein” (description)
ECONOMICS
 “economy” (household management)
GEOGRAPHY
 “geo” (earth) “graphein” (description)
LINGUISTIC
 “lingua” (tongue, language)
HISTORY
 “histoire” (recorder and documented events)
POLITICAL SCIENCE
 “politika” “polis” (affaires of the cities)
PSYCHOLOGY
 “psyche” (mind) “logos” (study of)
SOCIOLOGY
 “socius” (people together, associate), “logos” (study of)

SOCIOLOGY
 A close relative of anthropology, deals with how people behave and interact with one
another as member of a particular social group.
  Meanwhile, deals with population as a unit of analysis.
ECONOMICS
 Though at times separated from the other social sciences due to its emphasis on
quantitative analysis and mathematical equations as representations of social behavior.
GEOGRAPHY
 On one hand, insists that it is the environment or the location of the people-a condition
that exists outside of people-that ultimately conditions the way people will behave in
society.
Other disciplines such as psychology, linguistic, history, anthropology, and sociology
maintain that people do shape nature or the environment; humans transform the
natural environment in order to create an artificial or created world known as towns,
cities, or communities.
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE: FIELDWORK
 These act reveals the underlying structures and institution of their lives: religion,
economy, kindship, laws, governance, tradition, language, etc.
Ethnography is a special methodology in social sciences that aims to describe what contributes
as particular social phenomenon: event, actors, interactions, interactions, ideas, symbols, and
objects. This mode of inquiry is related to an “inductive” type of reasoning, which means
understanding the “general” context through an examination of the “specific” situation. This is
done through the following basic ethnographic techniques.
 Participant observation – actual and physical participation of the researcher in group
activities.
 In-dept interviews- formal and detailed interview of kls:
 Focus group discussion- facilitating a discussion with a number of kls guided by the
researcher’s agenda.
 Life history method- in- dept examination of the social phenomenon from the lens of
personal life story of a kls: and
 Ocular inspection- familiarization with the location and physical context of the subject
area.

FIELDWORK
 Is the social research techniques of going to” field” to conduct a face to face study of the
subject matter. Expectedly, sociology, linguistics, and geography are also drawn to this
method because the nature of their disciplines. Applied social science disciplines- social
work media studies, ethnomusicology etc. Fieldwork on the other hand, combines
positivist framework and opens up to more phenomenological.

TRYING LOOSEENDS IN SOCIAL SCIECE: METHODS

  There are many ways of validating a data set but the most important thing to
remember is not to rely on a single set or type of data because this might lead
based and shallow interpretation. Ethic states that there is a right and wrong
way of doing things especially when it involves research among people. There
are clamors from some sectors of the academe to recognize further the role of
the “informants”- the culture bearer’s and members of the community as
coauthor or performer of the study.
ETHIC
 Comes from the Greek word ethikos based on the root word ethos, which means
custom or habit.
Meanwhile, some applied disciplines are reminded of such ethical practices such
us those governing photographic and video documentations.

SETTING SOCIOPOLITICAL AGENDA IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

 The mission was to “collect” specimens for their respective museums and
institutions aside of course from their unofficial role as travelers and observers of
native and colonized people.

SOCIAL SCIENCE AND PHILIPPINE FOLKLORE STUDIES

 Isabelo de los Reyes, a Vigan native, conducted folkloric studies about

Philippines, which was considered than a not-so-familiar terrain in intellectual
pursuits. His internationally recognized piece of work, El Folklore Filipino,
established the significance of much-maligned folkloric traditions of the natives
of the land intellectual development of the people.
UNIT II
RESPECTIVES: HOW DO IDEAS OF AND ABOUT SOCIETY SHAPE THE WAY WE LOOK AT THE
WORLD

CHAPTER 2
STRUCTURES SHAPETHE WORLD: HOW DO WE MAKE THE NATURAL SCIENCE OF THE
SOCIETY? HOW SHOULD WE SEE IT? HOW DO WE INTEND TO CAHNGE OR REFORM IT?
 Theories is are our explanatory models where we could analyze, examine, and interpret
what we see and experience about life, society, and humanity. What is the best way to
view it? How do we intend to change or reform the life we live and experience?
Recreating, reforming, and reconstructing imply that there is something wrong around us that
we need to immediately address; that’s the wrongs that we painstakingly strive to see and
illustrate do not easily reveal themselves to us. Theories must not be taken as pills to be
entirely without question, without examination.
LENS
 In contemporary social science theories, the analogy for theoretical perspectives
is commonly express by the word “lens” to connote that there are various ways
to view our subjects-or realities-depending on the type of lens that we use us
well as the psychological and physical dispositions of the photographer.
CLASSICAL FRAMEWORKS: EVOLUTION AND FUNCTION
 The human body, this is how basic and fundamental classical social theories
begins. Reflect on the idea of the “body” and go back to the basic realities
characterizing what it is, what it does and it is for.
UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY BASED ON NATURE
 Social science and the “society” that it wishes to elucidate. On one hand, from
the perspective of “natural science”.
EVOLTION
 Aside from the discourse of modernity there was another idea that prevailed the
central issues for all other ideas in the west during the formative years of social
science. Change is a slow process of transformation from simple to complex
suggesting that the structure, organization, function, characteristics of organisms
adapt to changing times and situations and develop internal mechanisms.
Evolutionist thought declares that nothing is permanent in this world nor created
 from nothing. Classical exclusionism states that living organism, over time,
develop from simple forms of existence to complex states of life. Here we see a
stark difference between simple organism and complex organism. Later on,
exclusionism, became “Darwinism” the name came from British thinker Charles
Darwin. Darwinism became “social Darwinism” which Say that stronger and fitter
societies will naturally take over the weaker societies.
FUNCTION
 The theory of “function “was developed by Herbert Spencer and Emile
Durkheim. Spencer lived through most part of the 19 th century while Durkheim
lived from the late 19th to the early 20th century. Durkheim was at the forefront
of functionalist perspective of society using ethnological data from non-western
examples.
THE NATION OF FUNCTION
 Hence, key ideas around the nation of function developed as a concrete
contribution and follow up to the earlier formulations of functions.
Functionalism states that what keep society together is the function or role that
all parts or system perform, assert, and play in order to preserve maintain, and
sustain society for posterity. Meanwhile structural functionalism Radcliffe-Brown
follows the Durkheimian paradigm of focusing on underlying structures that
support the whole fabric of society.
STRUCTURE
 Institutionalized, layered, and pattered system of relationship upon which a
whole framework of relationship is based as if they are placed on top of one
another supporting the whole building or entity.
CLASSICAL FRAMEWORKS: MATERIALISM AND HUMAN PERSONALITY
 The 19th century German social thinker, Karl Max, approach the nature of
western society from a different perspective, that is from the perspective of the
“economy”.
CAPITAL
 In economics, “capital” refers to a type of good/product that when consumption
is differed to a later time, can produce more goods.
CLASSICAL PSYCHOANALYSIS SIGMOND FRUED
 Based on the Freud’s formulation, the individual human mind-the source of our
subjectivity-created by social and cultural forces that operate beneath the level
of the unconscious self.
 CLASSICAL PSYCHOANALYSIS
 One of the methods employed by Freud is psychoanalysis which makes use of a
dialogue between the patient and the psychoanalysts.
 CHAPTER 3

OUR VERY INTERACTION SHAPE US: HOW DO EVERYDAY LIFE AND

RELATIONSHIPS MOLD OUR REALITIES.

PHENOMENOLOGY, SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM, AND RATIONAL CHOICE

THE ENIGMA OF HUMAN ACTION

 Human actions are concrete, physical, and empirical phenomena-observable,
sensory and realistic. Human action is also a function of consciousness and
senses when we interact and engage with our world, we both think and feel.

AGENCY
 A term used in social science that points to individual human action and the
reflexive aspects of such action.

PHENOMENOLOGY
 Active and purposive use-of social media. Phenomenologists want to capture this
practical side of human existence because according to them, there lies the
source of human life. Phenomenology basically elaborated on earlier ideas of the
German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Phenomenology ultimately, is
study about how an individual make sense of his or her surroundings.

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALISM
 Thus, social interactionalism cultivated a social theory and method anchored on
the idea that instead of having predetermined knowledge about a certain
phenomenon. Social interactionists believe that society is not static entity that
appears before the individual but, in the contrary, it is the actors/individuals that
carry out the “leading role”.

RATIONAL CHOICE
 Rational choice theory relies heavily in the concept of “rationally” albeit in the
narrow connotation of the word individuals doing, choosing and selecting the
most cost beneficial method of coming up with the most benefit, and getting
results that would serve his or her goals and pursuits in life. Rational choice
theory also sees society as the creation of individuals interacting with one
another-only that they interact, they strive to get the most out of their limited
resources and given capacities.
 CHAPTER 4
SOCIETY AND US: HOW DO WE MAKE SENSE OF OURSELVES AND OF THE WORLD AROUND
AS?
STRUCTURALISM AND POST-STRUCTURALIM
 Structuralism is inspired by the ideas of Emile Durkheim and Ferdinand de Saussure,
who where contemporary thinkers of the early 20th century in Europe. According to
them, while on the superficial level there seems to be chaos and discover in what
human say or do, a closer look will reveal that all this human activities-everyday
sociocultural phenomena-mean something after all; they truly our consistent with the
laws and rules of human life and they are highly structed modes of behavior and
thinking. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) is a swiss linguist who introduced the
terms langue and the parole in analyzing the nature of language.
Who is Claude Levi-Strauss?
He is the French anthropologist who became famous-in the 1950s to 1960s-because of his
application of the structuralist theory in the study of culture and society.
POST-STRUCTURALISM
 Post-structuralism is also known as post-maxims and post-positivism due to its
rejection of the structuralist and positivist beliefs that there are ways to
objectively and scientifically analyze and characterized society. Jacques Lacan
(1926-1984) will echo post-structuralism principles. In their own respective
theories, such as the multiplicity and instability of meanings.
STRUCTURE AND AGENCY: THE NATURE OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP
 The whole message of this section is to show how structure agency
simultaneously shape our society today. We overemphasizing the role their
structure and agency “structuration” theories aimed at providing a more
practical and inclusive picture of the process that shape modern society,
stressing the equal role of and interaction between the two major aspects of
social life- the objective and subjective natures of social phenomenon. One of
the important ideas that informed structuration was the nation of “practical
consciousness”-a phenomenological concept-through which people activities-
(social phenomena). In the end, the nature of relationship between structure
and agency is one that is fluid, incessant, and dynamic- like a free-flowing river-
hence, it fits the nature of society that we live in and experience today,
continuously flowing moving, and changing.
BOURDIEU: REVEALING HIDDEN MECHANISMS OF SOCIETY
 BOURDIEU started with a crucial idea: the concept of “habitus”. Bourdieu’s
terms, habitus meant a distinctive and typical mode of behaving, doing, thinking,
and acting shared by all members of a given group of people. Here, Bourdieu
attempted to reconcile structure and agency by uncovering human practice-both
collective and individual-as the key analytical tool to examine the nature of social
phenomenon.
Habitus is both objective and subjective, in a sense, because it possesses both the
social/material condition of life and individual recreations of and reactions to those said
condition. Courtship is a good example where we can observe how habitus-the intersection
between what structure does to people and vice versa-has informed the way we choose our
partners. So, social life is like a coin that has two sides: on one side, structure, on the other side,
the individual.
GIDDENS: THE ROLE OF: AGENTS” IN THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIETY
 Much like Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens (born in 1938) believe that there should be no
dichotomy between “structure” in explaining the nature of mechanism. Giddens was
trained in sociology, anthropology, and psychology. He critiques previous ideas about
society such as positivism, structural functionalism rational choice theory, and other
interactionist ideas. He also examined canons such as the ideas of Durkheim, Marx, and
Weber. Giddens was given the tittle of baron by the state (thus he is oftentimes referred
to as “Lord Giddens”.
 CHAPTER 5
AFTER SOCIETY: HOW DOWE MAKE SENSE OF AN EVER-CHANGING “US” AND “THEM”?

A GLANCE OF CON TEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORIES

 The national geographic photograph opens many more possibilities of interpretations
rather than provide a final statement about the issue. Society, which was characterized
in the west as categorically different from and conceptually opposite of the community,
has now come to be less of a small village. Historically and geographically, the nation of
Wester created its own being in the mold of Western Europe and the united states of
America, which all contributed tremendously to the formation of a global social theory
and methodology.
BREAKING RULES AND DUBUNKING CANONS
 As society seemed to be founded upon such big ideas a change in ideas too-of
how we look at the world-will shake up our understanding of it-the locus of our
humanity. In our world today, rules and canons are increasingly being challenged
and reoriented to suit new trends and new ways of looking at the world. It says
that there is plurality in our meanings and meaning makings. The concept of
culture, which has served as a primary tool of colonization, state control, and
objectification by the academe and the scientific community, is the same
concept that can be used to respond to and address those pressing issues.
THE ERA OF MANY “POSTS”
 Three strands of contemporary social theory figure quite prominently in our
glance: post-modernism, post-colonialism, and gender theory. According to
contemporary theory drum beaters, we are said to bed already past and beyond
the dominance of science and empiricism, of rigid frameworks, and of limited
intellectual constructions.
POST MODERNISM
 A school of thought that developed out of architecture and literary criticism in
the 1980s, has created ripples in social science, especially in the way researchers
view their data set, prior assumptions about the world, and everyday
phenomena experience by humans.
POST COLONIALISM
 Is closer to our hearts and experiences as a nation simply because we were at
the receiving end of colonialism for almost 400 years under two different
colonial masters, the Spaniards and the Americans respectively.
 CHAPTER 6
INDIGENIZING THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: IS THERE A “NATIVE” INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATION FOR
SOCIAL THOUGHT
IN SEARCH OF FILIPINO SOCIAL SCIENCES
WHAT IS THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF A FILIPINO SOCIAL SCIENCE?
 Why do we need to have a Filipino social science-an AGHAM PANLIPUNANG PILIPINO?
Why do we need to make the systematic study of society more attuned to the Filipino?
more than an intellectual “selfie” of what we do here in the Philippines academic scene,
the struggle for a Filipino led academic social science is about believing in the idea that
the Filipino has something to offer to global study of society.
CLAMOR FOR INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE OR A CONTINUED STATE OF ACADEMIC
DEPENDENCY?
 In the other parts of the world, multinational companies or giant’s American restaurant
chains need to adapt to local culture and infuse local flavor in order to fit into the senses
of the native population. In contemporary times three strands of Filipino social sciences
have trailed blazed the Philippine Academe and already enshrined in the Philippine
intellectual history.
PANTAYONG PANANAYAW
 Posits that history is not only about recording of events much like the tradition
of historia/history of the west but also about finding, earning in the past events.
PILIPINOLOHIYA
 Also states that the Philippines and the Filipinos must be studied and
investigated using methodologists and conceptual tools drawn from Filipino
culture and society and experience.
AGHAM PANLIPUNANG PILIPINO
Is the fact that language is key to any form of knowledge because all of them could not
emphasize more how vital language is to doing research about the Filipino.
LOOB
 This is a different take on your usual academic vocabulary. Instead of being
provided with meanings and definitions, you will be tasked to explore the
cultural, social, and practical dimensions of this key value among Filipinos-the
concept of loob.