Philosophy, The Philosopher and The Society
Every sphere of life or field of study has a place or laboratory or system where it is manifested or experimented such that its tangibility can be perceived. The scientists make use of science labs, the medical doctor makes use of the theatre, lawyers experiment in the court room but for the philosopher, his testing ground is THE SOCIETY.
"Society came to be as a result of man's economic needs" - PLATO
What is Philosophy of Society?
According to Kwame Nkrumah in his book 'Consciencism' - 'philosophy could serve as an instrument of control in the society and the social milieu and current of a society could influence the prevailing philosophy'. It therefore implies that 'there is no socieity without a philosophy'.
Society is a "voluntary association of individuals for common ends; especially: an organized group working together or periodically meeting because of common interests, beliefs, or profession". Hegel in his Philosophy of Right defines a society as "an association of members as self-subsistent individuals in a universality which because of their self-subsistence is only abstract.
Ottaway defined society as "the whole range of social relationships of people living in a certain geographical territory and having a feeling of belonging to the same kind of group".
When we talk about the Philosophy of Society, we are simply saying or implying the use of philosophical concepts and approach in viewing, understanding and analyzing society. In doing this, there are certain philosophical questions that arise with regard to the society. Such as:
- What is the origin of the society?
- Does the society exist for the individual or the individual for the society?
- Are societal laws natural or conventional? Are they also changeable?
- Does the citizen have an obligation to the society?
- Is there an ideal society?
- Is democracy the best form of societal arrangement?
When this is critically understood, one would discover that the role of the philosopher in society is summarized in four concepts viz
- Ethics [the good life and the way to achieve it in the society]
- Politics [the ideal state or society and how to achieve it]
- Religion [God and His place in the society]
- Total Reconstruction of the entire fabric of the society i.e. impact on the society
Before we proceed, you must know the following:
- The study of society is called sociology.
- The term 'sociology' was invented by a man named Augustus Comte.
- The explanations given about society are classified into three.
- These three explanations include: Individualism, Holism and Functionalism.
- The opinion that for one to understand the society one must study the individual members is known as Individualism.
- One of the philosophers who believed in and supported individualism was John Stuart Mill.
- Holism holds that the whole is greater than the sum of its individual members. Some philosophers who agree to this include: Emile Durkheim and Plato.
- One of the philosophers who criticizes the holistic approach is Karl Popper.
- It was Emile Durkheim who wrote the book - The Rules of Sociological Method.
- Functionalism sees the society as a machine or an organism that performs a special task, purpose of function.
- Popular proponents of functionalism include: Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Merion Levy and Bronislaw Malinowski.
man once lived in a hypothetical state of nature where his life was 'solitary, nasty, brutish and short' - THOMAS HOBBES.
The Origin of the Society
On the origin of the society, several philosophers have given possible explanations as to how society came into existence. Let's consider some of these explanations:
- For Aristotle - "Man is a social animal who cannot survive in isolation and that the society grew out of human natural necessity and family unit".
- For Plato - "Society came to be as a result of man's economic needs".
- For Contractarians - "The society came to be as a result of a contract entered into by free men". These free men are known as 'contractarians'. And philosophers which supported this school of thought include: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean Jacque Rousseau etc.
- Hobbes in his book 'The Leviathan' argued that man once lived in a hypothetical state of nature where his life was 'solitary, nasty, brutish and short'. Hobbes went further by saying that the condition in which man found himself was that of - man against all and all against man. Owing to this critical state of things, man reached an agreement to enter a civil society where all men agreed to give their rights to a Leviathan or an absolute monarch who was not a party to the contract.
- John Locke was of the opinion that the state of nature is peaceful and based on natural law and that upon signing the contract, there must be separation of power between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary in order to check and balance excessive and abusive use of power.
- Rousseau later claimed that this power should be exerted in the 'will of all' or the 'General will' which in his words, is a 'surefire'.
The Types of Society
Here, we classify society into types on the basis of the mode of food production in the society. As such, we have:
- The Pre-Industrial Society
- The Industrial Society
- The Post-Industrial Society
In the Pre-Industrial Society, food production was carried out by human and animal labour and such societies include - hunting and gathering, pastoral, horticultural, agrarian and feudal.
In the Industrial Society rely mainly on machines for food production. An example of this society is Capitalism.
The Post-Industrial Society was characterized by the emergence of information services and high technology more than food production.
Karl Marx was of the opinion that the society developed through five stages viz
- Slavery
- Feudalism
- Capitalism
- Socialism
- Communism
A Society based on land-ownership - FEUDALISM
A Society based on slave-ownership - SLAVERY
A Society based on private-ownership of the means of production - CAPITALISM
A Society where the government controls the means of production - SOCIALISM
A Society that is classless - COMMUNISM
Karl Marx was vehemently against Capitalism because according to him, it is exploitative. In a capitalist society those who control the means of production take undue advantage of the workers.
In Capitalism: Those who own/control the means of production are called BOURGEOISIES while the workers or the oppressed are called PROLETARIATS.
Miscellaneous Information
- The concept of Open and Closed Society was explained by Henri Bergson and Karl Popper.
- An Open Society is a system whose members are autonomous and can decide on the basis of their own intelligence what to do. Also the members compete fairly for social positions.
- A Closed Society is authoritarian or totalitarian and its members are bereft of free choice over what to do.
- An Open Society is rational and critical e.g. Liberal Democratic Society
- A close society is supported by an ideology that functions like a magical taboo e.g. Platonic Ideal State.
- For Aristotle, the true forms of government include: Monarchy, Aristocracy and Polity. While the perverted forms are: Tyranny, Oligarchy and Democracy.
- Aristotle also justified slavery because he thought that some persons can neither decide for themselves nor be in the assembly of men.
- Karl Marx saw capitalism as a refined form of slavery.
- The word 'Ujamaa' is from the Swahili language and it means 'familyhood'. It is a form of socialism where love is extended to members of the society as if they were members of the same family.
- For Kwame Nkrumah only Idealism and Materialism exists. Idealism to him, was in support of capitalism while materialism is socialistic and egalitarian.
- There exists another group of thinkers known as the 'anarchists'. These philosophers were doubtful of the essence of government in the society. They opted for partial or total removal of constituted authority. They believe 'government is evil'. Some of these philosophers include: William Godwin, Robert Wolff, P. Kropotkin, P. J. Proudhon, Robert Nozick etc.
- Justice as Fairness was proposed by a philosopher called - JOHN RAWLS. In his book titled - A Theory of Justice.
- The philosopher who observed that unjust men seem to be happier than just men in the world was - THRASYMACHUS.
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