Lecture Notes: What Constitutes a Healthy or Well-Ordered Society

Yesterday, I concluded my comments on society by offering this definition: that society is an organized system of institutions. Now, we need to carry the argument farther, so I am going to use this blog post to present my thoughts on what constitutes a healthy or well-ordered society which will be our ultimate basis for deterimining what qualifies as a social problem.

A. Having established what society is, we now need to turn our attention to the question of what society is capable of becoming, or what a HEALTHY, WELL-ORGANIZED, or IDEAL society would be like.

1. Recall the doctor/medical analogy -- social scientists must have some understanding of the proper functioning of society and the institutions which make it up, as a basis for diagnosing society's illnesses, especially those that appear life-threatening.

B. So, based on the conception of society as an organized system of institutions, I would argue, IN GENERAL, that a properly organized society would involve the proper organization of these institutions -- that these institutions function HARMONIOUSLY, which is key to individuals leading a satisfying life.

1. There is a difference between this and the "normal" functioning of institutions -- the normal functioning of these institutions may be the real problem (as you all explored a bit in your first blog exercise). I believe this will come through in our critical analysis of overconsumption and debt, which many people just take for granted or see as normal.

a.) Social critic, Erich Fromm, in an interesting book entitled, "The Sane Society," published back in the 1950s, introduced a relevant concept here: the "PATHOLOGY OF NORMALCY." That is, that the norm may be the problem such as the acceptance of racial segregation back then.

2. Practically speaking, to have a good house to live in, it is important that the carpenter you hire is competent, has been well-trained, that he has good tools, materials, proper nourishment, etc., etc. -- in short, that he is properly INSTRUMENTED. This would require, in an ultimate sense, that the economy be right, agriculture be right, education/training be right, etc. for good houses to be built. Remember, human relations are mediated by objects. One could make a similar point about having proper health care.

C. To push this farther, one would have to define the essential purpose of the basic institutions in our society, what role these institutions play in maintaining that larger life in which we all participate. It is also vital for us as individuals to consider our place, our role, in this larger life, too. (For example, in "Affluenza" in Chapter 14 the authors ask us to consider what the economy is for.)

1. I would also mention another interesting book, "The Costs of Living," by Barry Schwartz, in which he makes a serious effort to define the purpose of basic institutions and then looks critically at how and why these institutions clearly are not fulfilling that purpose.

D. Since my sketch of society is largely based on the social thought of American philosopher, Elijah Jordan, I believe it is appropriate to give him the last word on this -- a statement of what he calls "the law of morality," or a standard for determining what constitutes a healthy society. This comes from his major work on ethics, entitled, "The Good Life," p. 59:

"The good life posits a person or actor endowed by nature and by culture with all the capacities that are possible to him, with these capacities developed to their fullest possible degree; the person living in a world so organized and ordered as to guarantee to the person full and free access to all the means and instruments necessary to the adequate and appropriate expression of his capacities and to the realization of his acts in satisfying objects."

Let me also add to this a nice statement from William Morris of a similar standard which can be found in the bottom paragraph, p. 140 of "Affluenza." Check that out as well.

E. A couple final observations regarding the above statement are in order --

1. One can easily gather from this that such conditions as poverty, hunger, homelessness, unemployment clearly represent problems both for individuals and the larger society. Work is especially important -- it is AN ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. We build our lives around our work, what we do. When there is a lack of work, meaningless or unrewarding work, or work that destroys or undermines the larger social order, this is a serious social problem.

2. Insofar as our society, or any society, falls short of this standard of a healthy society described above (as all societies do in varying degrees), we can say something is wrong, that social problems exist, that we have work to do.
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That's all for now. PLEASE INCORPORATE THE ABOVE NOTES IN YOUR NOTEBOOKS. We will pick up with "Affluenza" next week. On Tuesday we'll see the video and then on Thursday we'll get into the book. Finally, be looking for a description of a family exercise in connection with seeing the video, which I will post on this blog next Monday.