GTOSD 101
“Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.”
Aristotle, Politics
Introduction
Surely what makes us “Us” is us. Beyond the arrangement of our DNA and the structure of our bodies it is how we relate and socialize with each other that makes us human beings. Throughout recorded history our species is defined by our social interactions. Even examples of aesthetics or recluses are defined by their separation from the social group, thus being apart from the group is not our natural state. Aristotle knew this when he said that “society is something that precedes the individual”, others throughout history knew this, and every one of us knows this in our bones.
Advancing the work done by Lévi-Strauss, Bourdieu, Foucault, and others, it is time for us to name the structure, experiment with it, and use that understanding to better benefit our societies. This type of research will help set the ground rules, acknowledge the foundational elements, and create a project plan to better guide our hand in building our ontology of the Societal Domains. It has never been more important than now to level the playing field by exposing the structures of our cultures and create the new models that will help us make more informed decisions.
To get into a more detailed understanding, go to the Library and check out the paper on “The General Theory of Societal Domains”. For now, keeping reading below to explore this tutorial.
The ontology for the Societal Domains comprising The Structure begins with simply defining the words we will be using to represent the domains. Adhering to our basic rule that simpler will most often suffice, there is no need to be obscure or overly creative in our definitions. We will be using the Oxford English Dictionary as our lexicon of choice. Following the definitions (below) are a few non-exhaustive examples of each Societal Domain’s activities and/or states. You will note that as the activities progress to the right that will require some interaction with other domain(s), but the root-activity still remains with the originating domain.
The Structure’s framework can be envisioned by the figure above with its many-to-many connections. It simply serves to remind us that although certain activities within Societal Domains can act independently it is more likely that they interact with other domains to create Social Elements. It will also be important to remember that each connection between domains will need to be validated individually and cumulatively.
