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Usages of the Term ‘Social'

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Barbara K. Bowdery
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Extract

The word ‘social’ is used in many different contexts, in each of which the word has a general root meaning, common to all contexts in which it is found. But in addition, there are other specific meanings, peculiar to each context, which are intended by the user of the term. Frequently, these other meanings of the term are not made explicit, and hence ambiguities arise.

The root meaning of the term involves some sort of relationship among two or more people. ‘Social’ is derived from the Latin socius, meaning ‘companion’. At least two people are involved here: 1) the person having the companion, and 2) the companion. Nothing is intended as to the nature of the relationship between the two or more people. In each context in which the term ‘social’ is used it has this root meaning. This paper is concerned, however, with those other aspects of the meanings of the term which are intended to specify more precisely the nature of this relationship among two or more people, and therefore are different in different contexts. The contexts will be isolated, and the more specific meanings of the term in these different contexts will be distinguished and made explicit.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , October 1942 , pp. 356 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1942

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References

1 Rausenbush, W. Jesus Christ and the Social Question, p. 9.

2 Ibid., p. 10.

3 Durkheim, Emile. Rules of Sociological Method, p. 10.

4 Linton, Ralph. The Study of Man, p. 83.

5 Cf. Malinowski's books on the Trobriand Islanders. In Argonauls of the Pacific he discusses trade and commerce; in Coral Gardens and their Magic he describes Trobriand agricultural practices, and also their religious and magical practices; in the Sexual Life of Savages he describes family life and sexual practices among the Trobrianders.

6 Weber, Max. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 1.

7 Znaniecki, Florian. The Method of Sociology, p. 107.