Format:
Online-Ressource (xv, 433 pages)
,
24 cm
Content:
part I. Social life in culture perspective -- part II. Social theory -- part III. External factors influencing social life -- part IV. Cultural and psychological factors influencing group life -- part V. Phases and problems of modern society -- part VI. The trend of social development
Content:
"Man is a social animal. He lives with his fellows, and this living together involves mutual understanding and confidence. Though he is a child of nature he meets the physical world with an equipment bestowed by the social medium in which he lives. He is born no better equipped for life than are the beasts of the field, and indeed is not so well prepared for self-defense. Into his hands are placed the weapons with which he defends himself against the beasts which attack him or captures the prey which becomes his food. Unaided he would not learn the use of club or spear, and he would have no bow and arrow with which to ward off his enemies. He communicates with others through language. Speech, however, is not an invention of his own, but something which he learns from his fellows. Through it and the concepts current in the group he is carried back to days which he can not remember, and he learns events which lie beyond his experience. Everything that man has which is significant he acquires by virtue of being a member of society. Isolate him at birth and it is doubtful if he could live; in any case he could not live abundantly but only as those animals live which have no accumulated civilization. An account of life in this social world is offered in the pages which follow. We shall see it as it is lived by those primitive folk whom we call savages, by those peoples of the Far and the Near East who sometimes seem so different from ourselves, and as it was and is lived by us. There will be occasion to ponder over its problems and perplexities, and at the same time to inquire into proposed remedies for some of its evils. For the social order which can help can also harm, and none is wholly without both good and bad elements"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index. - Electronic reproduction; Washington, D.C; American Psychological Association; 2015; Available via World Wide Web; Access limited by licensing agreement; s2015 dcunns
Language:
English
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