Concepts in social philosophy

Reality is the state of everything that exists, not how they might be imagined. Different cultures and academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways.

An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Formerly applied primarily to economic, political, or religious theories and policies, in a tradition going back to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, more recent use treats the term as mainly condemnatory.

thumb|alt=See caption|An African-American man drinking from a Racial segregation in the United States|racially segregated water cooler marked "Colored", in [[Oklahoma City ]] Discrimination is the process of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, usually in a way that it deprives them of their legal or human rights. The group may be such as race, gender, age, class, religion, disability or sexual orientation. Discrimination typically leads to groups being unfairly treated on the basis of

thumb|Vincent van Gogh, 1890. [[Kröller-Müller Museum. The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix).]] A conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience is not an elicited emotion or thought produced by associations based on immediate sensory perceptions and reflexive responses, as in sympathetic central nervous system responses. In common terms, conscience is often described as leading to feelings of remorse when a person commits an act that conflicts with their moral values. The extent to which con

thumb|Sami Family 1900

faculty of the mind which intentionally selects the strongest desire from among the various desires present

An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or goals, rights and responsibilities. The concept of an individual features in many fields, including biology, law, and philosophy. Every individual contributes significantly to the growth of a civilization. Society is a multifaceted concept that is shaped and influenced by a wide range of different things, including human behaviors, attitudes, and ideas.

Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. Following work by Michel Foucault, these fields view discourse as a system of thought, knowledge, or communication that constructs our world experience. Since control of discourse amounts to control of how the world is perceived, social theory often studies discourse as a window into power. Within theoretical linguistics, discourse is understood more nar

condition in social relationships

thumb|Engraving depicting the play Le Misanthrope by [[Molière]]

Contentment is a moderate form of happiness, a state of being or emotion in which one is satisfied with their current life situation, and the state of affairs in one's life as they presently are. If one is content, they are at inner peace with their situation and how the elements in one's life are situated. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to be content with one's life regardless of the circumstance, regardless of whether things are going as one expected or not.

thumb|upright=1.4|alt=painting|Return to the Convent, by Eduardo Zamacois y Zabala, 1868. The painting depicts a group of [[monks laughing while a lone monk struggles with a donkey. ]]

adoption of elements of a minority culture by members of the dominant culture

In philosophy, ressentiment (; ) is one of the forms of resentment or hostility. The concept was of particular interest to some 19th-century thinkers, most notably Friedrich Nietzsche. According to their use, ressentiment is a sense of hostility directed toward an object that one identifies as the cause of one's frustration, that is, an assignment of blame for one's frustration. The sense of weakness or inferiority complex and perhaps even jealousy in the face of the "cause" generates a rejecting/justifying value system, or morality, which attacks or denies the perceived source of one's frustr

The principle of individuation, or '''''''''', describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinct from other things.

Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws".

thumb|Engraving by John Warner Barber of a person chasing off a beggar with a stick to illustrate the [[rich man and Lazarus biblical parable]]

characteristics and key events that compose the essentials of human existence

Intersubjectivity describes the shared understanding that emerges from interpersonal interactions.

untruth propagated to strengthen social harmony

alt=9–10-year-old boys of the Yao tribe in Malawi participating in circumcision and initiation rites.|thumb|Initiation ritual of boys in Malawi. The ritual marks the passage from child to adult male, a liminal stage in the context of their lives.

Critique is a method of disciplined, systematic study of a written or oral discourse. Although critique is frequently understood as fault finding and negative judgment, it can also involve merit recognition, and in the philosophical tradition it also means a methodical practice of doubt. The contemporary sense of critique has been largely influenced by the Enlightenment critique of prejudice and authority, which championed the emancipation and autonomy from religious and political authorities.

capacity of an agent to act in a world and make own decisions

will of the people as source of political legitimacy

Telos (; ) is a term used by the philosopher Aristotle to refer to the final cause of a natural organ or entity, or of human art. The Greek word is the root of the modern term "teleology", the study of purposiveness or of objects with a view to their aims, purposes, or intentions. Teleology is central in Aristotle's work on plant and animal biology, and in his analysis of human ethics, through his theory of the four causes. Aristotle's notion that everything has a telos also gave rise to epistemology.

social concept that special rights or advantages are available only to a particular person or group of people

concept of ordinary people accepting premises, however inhuman, as normal

thumb|upright=1.2|Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act I, Scene IV by Henry Fuseli (1789)

Personhood is the status of having outstanding moral worth. Yet the specific criteria that qualify someone as a person are controversial. In the West, personhood tends to be defined in terms of "sophisticated cognitive capacities;" yet, in other societies, such as sub-Saharan Africa, personhood is more often understood as a relational process. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a legal person (either a natural or a juridical person) has rights, pro

In critical theory, deterritorialization is the process by which a social relation, called a territory, has its current organization and context altered, mutated or destroyed. The components then constitute a new territory, which is the process of reterritorialization.

concept in psychology

condition of not being accepted as human by society

concept, used in the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza and elaborated by Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari

a society divided into social classes

Amour-propre (; ) is a French term that can be variously translated as "self-love", "self-esteem", or "vanity". In philosophy, it is a term used by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who contrasts it with another kind of self-love, which he calls amour de soi.

mock Latin phrase referring to a consumerist society