FREE ESSAY ON MAN AND SOCIETY

MAN AND SOCIETY

In this paper I will try to explain the puzzle of whether individuals are products of
society or society is a product of individuals. I believe that in general, and in the
beginning, the answer to this question, is that society is a human product. I will start
by presenting early man, the hunter and gatherer as an early form of society, but lacking
critical qualities of a society. Then I will continue to support my theory by analyzing
the beginning of known society some three and one half thousands years ago. I will
present the individual as creation of society, or more precisely, an ongoing social
recursive conditioning. I will also present society as creation of individuals. Finally,
I will conclude my paper with some thoughts on the paradox of who is the product and who
is the producer of the individual and society. 
EARLY MAN
According to Charles Darwin, man developed from the ape. Darwin's theory of evolution
appears to be unsupported though, because for thousands of years these apes have been
there, but none of them have developed into human beings nor did Darwin ever find the
missing link. Although unproved, there must be a process of evolution. And if there was
evolutionary process, a few of the steps in-between still must be missing. Since man is
not asexual, man did not, and could not, survive or prosper by himself. Early man grouped
together with other hunters and gathers to form a family which brought order, direction,
and stability to his life. According to Rousseau, "the earliest and only natural
societies are families (Primis 192)." The point here is that the individuals choose to
become a part of something larger than the individual. 
But if Rousseau is correct, there was a time when the individual gave up certain freedoms
to find security within a group. This is contra to Thomas Hobbes view. It was not until
significant scientific advances in the nineteenth century that the view of this
seventeenth century philosopher Hobbes has his views rejected. Hobbes stated that the
life of early man was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Hobbes thought that early
man was scarcely even human and a club-wielding savage. At either rate, early man lacked
the qualities that were considered by John Locke as necessary to begin a society even
though it is believed that groups and families existed.
Society as Product of Individuals 
Some three and one half thousands years ago a group of individuals gathered their
resources together to form the first civilization named Sumer. The people that lived
there were called Sumerians. The Sumerians began as a primitive race stemming from the
hunters and gatherers who came to the area known as southern Mesopotamia to form the
first permanent human settlement. By the end of their occupation in Mesopotamia, they had
created the beginnings of society as we know it today. It has been said by the locals
that this place is the fabled Garden of Eden and also according to tradition, Eden
existed in the marshes of this fertile land that is today known as Iraq today.
The lands of Sumer were fertile and in close relationship to two major rivers which are
known as the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers today. The fertile lands were feed by the rivers
and allowed the settlers to stop the migratory habits of their predecessors or early man.
The constant migration of early man had prevented any real education to exist as they
were always on the move in search of food and shelter. Early man was only concerned with
survival, which meant that they did not have the leisure time to give thought to the
development of academia. The Sumerians, which found the development of agriculture an
easy task in this land, found that they had time to develop culture and devote time to
academic studies. The Sumerians conceived and began development of mathematics, reading,
writing skills and the written text on cunieform tablets, the wheel and agricultural
technology, which are heavily relied upon in today's society. By 3,000 BC, the written
script of the Sumerians had evolved into a full syllabic alphabet. The Sumerian's gift of
writing made possible for the recording of history for the first time. The recording of
literature, science, society and history is a lasting legacy of the Sumerians and our
society. 
The individuals in the Sumer originated the development of society through the codes of
law that was written as, and to be, social policy. These were the first written laws and
law is what defines the norms within our society. This is a defining point as to whether
individuals are products of society or society is a product of individuals. Since these
individuals conceived what society shall represent, then it is clear that originally
society is a product of individuals. It was not only the codes of law that were created
by the Sumerians, but tens of thousands of cunieform texts that contain lullabies,
poetry, ledgers, administration and property records. The theory that John Locke presents
is that man must agree to join society and the community living peaceably and secure in
the fact that his personal property is protected by the community by the laws and
property records against any that are not of the community. The social concept that began
in Sumer would change the face of history. 
Individuals as Product of Society
Society is the unconscious collective of the morals and values of individuals that formed
that society, but society is only a word. It was there before the individual was born,
and it will be there after their death. Society is not tangible although individuals that
formed it are. Society has no soul and the individual would find it hard too change
anything about it. Yet society has the ability to change the individual based on previous
individuals influence on society. The social effect as far as the individual is
concerned, I envision as a ceaseless externalization of the individual in the course of
their perpetual edification while society is absorbed through social control. But, I also
see society is an outgrowth of the individuals particular previous generations, or more
precisely, an ongoing recursive human production through which social institutions
manifest themselves without intervention of the individual. Therefore I feel that social
institutions clearly have a coercive power over the individual. 
Individuals that adhere to the morals and values cannot be created instantaneously or by
using the same edification principals for great lengths of time. There is no magic that
will create the perfect individual based on the norm, nor is there any institution that
is capable of doing this. This is where continuing education plays its social role.
Education as well as other social institutions always has a history, of which they are
the products, but they also must be able to adapt to the constant change of the social
environment. Understanding the historical process that produced a social institution is
needed before it is possible to understand the institution. Part of that history is that
institutions control the individuals conduct by setting up predefined patterns of
conduct, which are channeled against the many other deviations that are ideological
possible. The given existence of an institution is basic proof of social control of the
individual and as such proof that the individual is a product of society, but only of the
society past individuals have created. That is, man and his social world interact with
each other by which the product acts back upon the producer and the producer act upon the
product. Society is a human product and society and an undeniable reality, but the
individual is by themselves a social product. Although this is external to the
individual, institutions are there, whether the individual likes it or not and
inescapable persistent reality. The existence of institutions is not diminished if the
individual does not adhere to its social constraints for it has far reaching power. 
Who is the Producer
The paradox of whether individuals are products of society or society is a product of
individuals is controversial at least. It is the case that the individual is capable of
producing a world that the individual experiences as something other than a human
product. It is argumentative the individual is the producer of society or that society is
the producer of the individual, but maybe they are so inter-linked that they are
indistinguishable. This is a different situation when an individual separates themselves
from society.
It is apparent that an individual in isolation could not conceive of or build a society.
Society is built upon the collective of the morals and valves of the individuals within
society, but a singular individual does not have a collective opinion. An individual in
isolation can only look at the world from an internal perspective. Only through
individual externalization can an individual view the social world as their others that
transcended into social conformity. For society to persevere, society must perpetuate its
values to further too present and future generation. 
I have tried to explain the puzzle of whether individuals are products of society or
society is a product of individuals. I then presented early man, but have shown that
early man was not the product or producer of society. I have shown that Sumer was the
beginning of society and that society was a human product. I then presented the
individual as a product of ongoing social conditioning of the institutions of society. I
feel that presented difficulty in trying to solve the paradox of who is the product and
who is the producer of the individual and society. 
Bibliography
Bibliography
Primis Social Science. McGraw-Hill Publishing. Columbus, OH