The role of social philosophy in society

The purpose of this article

Our lives are driven by the decisions that we make. One of the decisions could be also to let our lives be driven by others. While we usually draw upon the knowledge acquired by us through education for making the right decisions in many areas, there are however, other areas, where our decisions rely more on an amalgam of beliefs and preferences.

While the schools and colleges generally teach us well-researched or pre-tested principles and concepts, we hardly ever have the opportunity to validate our ideas and idiosyncrasies

This article attempts to provide an understanding of the of the role played by such faiths and beliefs, likes and dislikes, values and weaknesses. It also advocates that a study of social philosophy would provide the necessary insights and tools to deal with issues concerning personal and societal decisions. It also emphasises the need for validating our personal ideas and idiosyncrasies towards minimising frictions and stress in personal and social relationships.

What is social philosophy?

Philosophy is the science of life and social philosophy is the science of social life. It helps explain ‘why do we do’ ‘what we do’ in our interactions with other individuals and the society.

Social philosophy represents an amalgam of beliefs, concepts, norms, conventions, preferences, attitudes, and the like that mould life in all of its aspects. The life shaping decisions of people are products multiple influences that act together. These constitute the social philosophy of individuals, societies and the times.

All the terms used in this definition generally have multiple meanings and connotations. This article, however, limits or expands the connotations of some these terms as given below. You may skip these explications, if you wish to read the arguments of this article first.

• Philosophy originally stood for love of wisdom and subsequently came to represent a belief or a system of beliefs or a system of values by which one lives. As a field of study, it covers intellectual pursuits of wisdom, which means the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting.
• Science generally refers to a body of knowledge relating to a phenomena or observable event gained primarily through experience or experimental investigation. In this article, we broaden the connotation of phenomena to cover all realities as these exist irrespective of whether an observable event occurs or not.
• Life means many things to many people and has multiple denotations too. In this article we use the word ‘life’ to refer not to the biological phenomenon of ‘being alive’ but to the societal phenomenon of ‘living’
• Social philosophy refers to the body of knowledge pertaining to the phenomenon of discerning or judging what is good, true, or right and of making individual or collective decisions based on such understanding.
  

How does social philosophy influence life?

We owe our birth to the social acts of our parents. As a child, we grow inside the womb of society. Though we die as individuals in the end, the society actually takes the responsibility of disposing of our mortal remains too. Economic feasibility apart, it is the social philosophy of our parents, families, friends, relatives, and the society, which determines how we are brought up and cared for.

As we grow old and become adolescents and adults, we are guided by the social philosophies that we gather and internalize as children. While the rules enacted by governments and other social institutions tell us what is right or wrong, we make use of social philosophies to determine what is good and bad and even decide whether to abide by the laws of the land and social norms or not.

Social philosophies play two important roles in life

• Cause or ease social conflicts: Since social philosophies influence almost every type of personal and societal decision, they raise or reduce the level of conflicts within the society depending upon the extent to which there is contradiction or coalescence in the mindsets of people. Any society, which manages to establish among its members unified social philosophies, would enjoy greater harmony and happiness. As opposed to this, societies that spawn differing and divisive social philosophies is bound suffer because of not only the tensions created by the conflicts but also the disruptions that these conflicts cause in the overall development process.
• Increase or reduce societal frictions: The more unified social philosophies become, the less discordant would be inter-personal relationships within any society. Greater understanding of the thought processes that condition the mindsets of different individuals as well as different groups of individuals would be immense help in understanding and tolerating their differing viewpoints. When more and more people recognize and accommodate the differences that condition the thought processes and decision-making parameters of various individuals and social groups, there is bound to be less and less social frictions.

A study of social philosophy helps everyone to understand oneself better and analyze the positive and negative elements in social relationships correctly. It is a first step towards achieving peace with oneself and minimising frictions in personal relationships.

Social philosophy is also necessary to find lasting solutions for most of the sociological ills of our times. We often tend treat the symptoms as opposed to rectifying the root causes. One of the major reasons for this plight is our failure to understand realities, as they exist rather than prescribing how they ought to be.

It is perhaps marketing gurus like Kotler who recognize the importance of understanding all the influences that affect the decisions we make. On the contrary, both public policy makers and the economists who guide them base their decisions on theories that do not connect to the realities of society. The deliberations of recent OECD conclave on demand side economics for consumer policy should indeed serve as a revelation. It is time that we stopped assuming that people generally behave rationally and spend time on understanding why people behave the way they do.

It is time that we reinvented the science of life, particularly ‘social philosophy’ and applied it in our daily life.