Unit 3 The Individual and Society
Lead-in Material
—    Man is a social animal.
—    Man lives in groups, including communities and society.
—    Man cannot live as an individual without society.
—    Society not only controls men’s movements but also shapes our identities, thoughts and emotions.
—    Individuals are formed by society.
—    Individuals are the building blocks of society.
ALS-I
Scripts
Hi, my name is Nicholas Christakis and I’m a physician and a social scientist and the discipline I’m going to be speaking about to you today is sociology.
In sociology we explore a fundamental tension. On the one hand you yourself have your own identity and your own agency and your own ability to make choices that affect your life, but on the other hand there is a collective responsibility for your life as well. Supra-individual factors, like where you live or where you are located in this vast face-to-face networks that we human beings are assembled, or what kind of formal institutions are near you, like governments or hospitals, for example, can have as much to do with what happens to you in your life as your own decisions and your own actions.
Social scientists have developed a number of overarching approaches to understanding human behaviors in human society. One classic way of understanding collective behaviors is to look at individuals themselves. For example, we can see markets or elections or riots as the mere byproduct of individual’s decisions to buy and sell goods, to vote or to express anger. And the classic example of this approach, which is known as me
thodological individualism, is provided by Adam Smith’s conceptions of markets where each individual transacting their business as if guided by an invisible hand gives rise to a kind of efficient market.
Now another classic way of understanding collective human behavior dispenses with individuals and focuses on groups, groups with collective identities that cause people within the groups to act in concert. Some scholars in this tradition, like Karl Marx, even believe that groups can have their own consciousness imbuing them with a kind of indivisible personality that cannot be deduced or understood from the actions of its members.
Others have also focused on the primacy of group culture. For example, as we saw sociologist Emile Durkheim argued that the relatively constant rate of suicide within particular religious groups and in particular places at particular times could not be explained by the actions of individuals and must be properly understood as a property of the collective, as a property of the groups. How was it, he wondered, that people came an
d went, but the suicide rate in French Protestants stayed the same. This is known as methodological holism and this approach sees collections, sees groups, sees society as being distinct from the individuals, distinct from the constituent individuals and sees society and groups as having properties that cannot be deduced merely from studying the constituent individuals.
Notes for Scripts
1. Sociology
Sociology is the academic study of social behavior, including its origins, development, organization, and institutions. It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, social disorder and social change.
2. Nicholas Christakis
Nicholas A. Christakis (born 7 May 1962) is an American sociologist and physician known
for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic and biosocial determinants of behavior, health, and longevity. He is the Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University.
3. Adam Smith
Adam Smith (16 June 1723–17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher, pioneer of political economy, and key Scottish Enlightenment figure. He is best known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776).
4. Karl Marx
Karl Marx (5 May 1818–14 March 1883) was a philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Born in Germany, he later became stateless and spent much of his life in London in the United Kingdom.
5. Emile Durkheim
Emile Durkheim (15 April 1858–15 November 1917) was a French sociologist, social psychologist and philosopher. He formally established the academic discipline and — with Karl Marx and Max Weber — is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.
ALS-II
Scripts:
We all conform to some sort of social norms, like following traffic laws or even obeying the dress codes for different roles and environments. When we know how to act in a certain group or setting, life just seems to go more smoothly. Some of this conformity is non-conscious automatic mimicry, like how you’re likely to laugh if you see someone else laughing or nod your head when they’re nodding. In this way, group behavior can be contagious.

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