Philosophical Perspectives on Humanity and Society

Posted on Mar 4, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Descartes: The human being is understood as self-consciousness.
Kant: Reason orders and imposes its laws on the world and, therefore, has the power to configure it.
Rousseau: Argues that men have lost their state of natural goodness because of society, and they must decide what nature should be for them.
Nietzsche: A thinker who dares to bring the moral autonomy of modernity to its logical conclusions.
Foucault: The idea of human dignity is not only a Christian and enlightened cultural phenomenon.

Society in Plato and Aristotle: Plato and Aristotle proposed the idea that man is social by nature. While some societies disappear, others begin.
Society in Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant: Society emerges from a rational agreement among individuals, which, by necessity or desirability, gives rise to social groups.
Sociology: The science that studies the social dimension of human beings.
Auguste Comte: He proposed not only to give a scientific explanation of the social but also to ensure the best possible government. In his view, societies have gone through two stages: the theological and the metaphysical stage.
Marx: Marx proposes a conception of the structure and dynamics of society based on class struggle.
Liberalism: A set of philosophical, social, economic, political, and religious doctrines characterized by overvaluation of individual freedom, undervaluation of everything that is not rational, and the reduction of all reality to the natural order.
Adam Smith: For this Scottish economist, the activity of individuals is what shapes the social structure.
Social Norms: Rules that guide people’s behavior.

Ethical Limits of Culture: Not every element of a culture favors human progress. A culture that supports ethical goods that respond to human nature and promotes the common good can be called a civilization.
Process of Socialization: Socialization is the social experience through which people develop their human potential and learn patterns of their own culture. This process has three main aspects:
- The acquisition of culture.
- The integration of culture into personality.
- Adaptation to the social context.
Social Classes: Class is defined as that community of people sharing status or a similar stratum of people more or less the same in areas such as family status and occupational status, and is accepted by other members of their layer as equals.
Status: Status and prestige lead to the formation of different levels of status.
Civil Society: Being a citizen is to participate in the various associations that make up civil society, that is, in all fields of social relations that act neither mandated by the State nor by mere desire for economic gain.