Philosophical Perspectives on Society and Human Nature
Plato (427-347 BCE)
Plato believed that human need is the origin of society. Man needs many things, and his capacity for action is limited, so he needs society. The individual depends on the state. The virtue and happiness of the individual depend on the virtue and happiness of the state. The polis will only be just if a relationship based on duty exists between the different social classes that constitute it.
- Wisdom: Wise Ruler
- Fortitude: Warrior (Irascible)
- Temperance: Artisan (Concupiscible)
The individual organizes his life through the state; his decisions will be based on reason. The harmony of all gives rise to justice.
Types of Government from Best to Worst
- Aristocracy: The best
- Timocracy: The guardians
- Oligarchy: The rich
- Democracy: The people
- Tyranny: A single ruler
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
Aristotle sought a constitution that could be realized. The best way is to achieve the common good, creating the optimum conditions of life for citizens to live well. The polis can satisfy all human needs because it is perfect. The individual can only develop their wisdom and happiness within the polis.
Origin of the Polis
- Metaphysics: The human being is a zoon politikon, naturally becoming a citizen through the polis under laws intended for happiness.
- Genetics: The polis starts with families and their instinct for procreation and protection; these form villages, and these give rise to the polis.
Government Corruption
- Tyranny from Monarchy
- Oligarchy from Aristocracy
- Demagogy from Democracy
A Proper Government Must
- Agree with human nature.
- Respect historical conditions.
- Have a normal population size.
- Have a state territory adequate to enable its inhabitants to live normally.
- Ensure prosperity and a virtuous life for man.
- Foster courage and intelligence in the people.
- Establish compulsory education for its citizens in peacetime and war.
- Place power in the hands of the elderly because of their wisdom.
Rousseau (1712-1778)
Though linked to major criticism, Rousseau believed progress moves human beings away from the primitive, natural man. The natural man is self-sufficient, not aggressive, and identifies with those who suffer. Private property arises from greed and lack of solidarity. The natural state has been lost, but Rousseau sees it as a paradigm to understand the true basis of human beings, to rescue it, and to develop a society based on freedom, equality, and justice. The natural state over the civil covenant is not done by alienation (the individual selling his liberty for security, either out of obligation or madness). The pact is based on the common good; one becomes a citizen with rights and duties that will only be fair if they respect the natural rights of man.
Locke (1632-1704)
Locke starts from the natural state, where men voluntarily become members of a political society. The state was created to protect the rights of subjects. The community meets to keep property separate, as in the natural state. The main thing is freedom, but also insecurity.
Marx (1789-1857)
Marx believed society is governed by fixed laws. He discovered the law of three stages. Society is organized peacefully because the law is developed successively in history, each stage being a consequence of the one before. Order is indispensable to progress.
Cultural Achievements
- Action has been the driving force of hominization.
- The world is not something to learn but to master.
- Technical activity constantly appeals to thought. Only the relatives of theory arise between activity and human action.
- The products of human action are called culture.
- The human being is an outward-looking nature.
Characteristics of the Human World
- Social World: Society shapes us, making sense of all the stimuli around us. Society helps us make sense of the world, though it need not be objectively true.
- Symbolic World: Social construction uses language as a tool by which we learn norms, values, etc., and communicate through words.
- Historical World: All the rules, values, etc., have been formed over the course of history. They do not arise spontaneously but through society; everyone is a product of their time.
What is the Human Being?
- Ideas of the Judeo-Christian tradition
- Ideas of classical antiquity
- Scientific and psychological ideas
A Rational Animal?
- Plato: Man is rational, theoretical, and contemplative, in contrast to technical, manual laborers and slaves.
- Aristotle: Women are in the same class as children, slaves, and prisoners.
- Linnaeus: Designated the human species as Homo sapiens.
- Foucault: This vision unidimensionalizes man; he claimed the person as a whole.
- Pascal: “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.”
Is Man the Center of the Universe?
- Monod: Defends the necessity and chance in the evolution of the universe.
- Teilhard de Chardin: The human being is the goal and purpose of evolution.
- Foucault: It seems that at present, it is the end of man.
Is Man a Social Being?
- Aristotle: Called man a zoon politikon; the number of requirements and a limited repertoire of action forces man to live together.
- Hobbes: Man is selfish and competitive by nature. Only in society can he develop his skills.
Is Man Free?
- Sartre and Ortega: Man has no nature; the person is freedom; the human being is becoming.
- Spinoza: Considered freedom a dream.
Is Man a Spiritual Being?
- Plato: Identified man with an accidental dualism; the body is the prison of the soul. The body is identified with the passions, and the soul with the truth.
- Aristotle: Man is body, above all; his whole life can only be realized on Earth.
Dignity or Poverty?
- Pico della Mirandola: Believed that the dignity of man is not due to nature but to his action.
- Nietzsche: This indeterminacy is man’s suffering, pain, and misery. Man is a sick animal.