Redeeming the Social Sciences

customs and conventions that we do? Why do we form the social habits that we form? The social sciences are oriented at asking and seeking the answers to such questions. The social sciences have historically focused on human beings as social creatures living in social settings.

One may need to begin with the initial exercise of delineating the practices deemed social sciences. “Which, in fact, are the social sciences? One way to answer the question is to see what departments and disciplines universities group under this name. Social science divisions usually include departments of anthropology, economics, politics, and sociology . . . The social sciences proper focus on cultural, institutional, and environmental factors.”3

Is it possible, then, to define what we mean by the term social science? “Such fields as anthropology, economics, politics, and sociology constitute a kind of central core of social science, which almost all social scientists would include in any definition. In addition, we think it would be conceded by most social scientists that much, though not all, of the literature of such fields as law, education, and public administration, and some of the literature of such fields as business and social service, together with, a considerable portion of psychological literature, falls within the confines of a reasonable definition.”4

Humans, by nature, are capable of both changing our social environments and changing ourselves to fit our social environments. The term autoplastic is descriptive of the molding or shifting of ourselves to adjust to our phys- ical and social setting. While the term alloplastic describes the human propensity to adapt our setting or environment to fit our biological, religious, and existential needs. The primary goal of society, when acting in its own good and self-interest, is to establish certain social habits5 and then to refine those civic habits 6 to establish and retain social order. This human propensity for order is most assuredly reflective of the image of God humans bear. More specifically, while customs, conventions and habits are not set in stone, they are projections and reflections of the human longing for order within a needed context. The human need for social order is evident. This is where the social sciences have the potential to best assist with our self understanding as, “the social sciences proper focus on cultural, institutional, and environmental factors . . .”

3 Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book , 290-291.

4 Ibid., 292.

7 The relationship between custom and habit may best be described in symbiotic terms. Collective social customs are shaped by actions that are habitually recurring. These recurring collective actions become social customs. In other words, “custom is both a cause and an effect of habit. The habits of the individual certainly reflect the customs of the community in which he lives; and in turn, the living customs of any social group get their vitality from the habits of its members. A custom which does not command general compliance is as dead as a language no longer spoken or a law no longer observed. This general compliance con- sists in nothing more than a certain conformity among the habits of individuals.” 8

5 Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” in Gateway to the Great Books: Man and Society (Chicago: Britannica, 1990), Volume 5: 686.

6 Ibid., 651.

7 Adler, How to Read , 291.

It has been observed that customs, conventions, and social habits act to order human life and can even come to exercise pressure calling for acculturated compliance or blind conformity. In other words, “. . . so custom works in opposite directions as a social force. It is both a factor of cohesion and a division among men . . . [peoples] are excluded by a social, not a geographic, boundary line, the line drawn between those who share a set of customs and all outsiders. When the stranger is assimilated, the group does not adopt him: he adopts the customs of the community. The very word ‘community’ implies a multitude having much in common. More important than the land they occupy are the customs they share.” 9

Historians, the caliber of Xenophon, are attentive to the ways that social customs, ranging from religious practices, housing, food, drink, gestures, and festivals act as a means of conveying the social lives and ways of various people.10 Specifically, regarding dwellings of a particular people and how their houses embody certain customs, Xenophon observes that, “the houses here were built underground; the entrances were like wells, but they broadened out lower down. There were tunnels dug in the ground for the animals, while the men went down by ladder. Inside the houses there were goats, sheep, cows and poultry with their young. All these animals were fed on food that was kept inside the houses.”11

8 Adler, Syntopicon , 216.

9 Ibid., 216.

10 Xenophon, “The Persian Expedition,” in Gateway to the Great Books: Man and Society . (Chicago: Britannica, 1990), Volume 5: 209-212.

It is by considering the daily, ordinary habits of life that we come to understand people. Human customs are not monolithic, neither are they totally arbitrary. Customs function primarily as ordering phenomena for humans who need such ordering, especially when living in community. While considering the various ways that customs are manifested, attention will also be given to the underlying and myriad ways that customs order human existence. “There was also wheat, barley, beans and barley-wine in great bowls. The actual grains of barley floated on top of the bowls, level with the brim, and in the bowls there were reeds of various sizes and without joints in them. When one was thirsty, one was meant to take a reed and suck the wine into one’s mouth. It was a very strong wine, unless one mixed it with water, and, when one got used to it, it was a very pleasant drink.”12 every single case they would have on the same table lamb, kid, pork, veal and chicken, and a number of loaves, both wheat and barley. When anyone wanted, as a gesture of friendship, to drink to a friend’s health, he would drag him to a huge bowl, over which he would have to lean, sucking up the drink like an ox.”13

Human communities are knit together by the social interactions that are, in part, shaped by the very customs that enable smooth and fluid engagements. Imagine even a small community that lacked shared habits, manners, and customs that provided the preordained guidance for verbal and physical exchanges. Again, Xenophon provides an anecdote as to how this functions within a military camp setting. “Everywhere he found them feasting and merrymaking, and they would invariably refuse to let him go before they had given him something for breakfast. In 11 Ibid., 211.

12 Xenophon, The Persian Expedition , 211.

Customs and social habits have the ability to affect behavior as well as the internal intimations and longings. Clearly, customs can and do impact practices of the external surroundings as well as the internal landscape of the human heart and mind. Take for example, the inclination some have toward patriotism. Tocqueville notes that “there is one sort of patriotic attachment which principally arises from that instinctive, disinterested and undefinable feeling which connects the affections of man with his birthplace. This natural fondness is united to a taste for ancient customs, and a reverence for ancestral traditions of the past; those who cherish it love their country as they love the mansion of their fathers.”14 It is worth noting that Tocqueville in this passage recognizes that customs and traditions can be as substantive in their formation and affections as physical, and geographical places can be on the actions of the collective public.

It has been noted by many social scientists that customs serve as ordering forms for the social self, but are not immutable. For the determinist who contends that the masses are mindless drones who simply conform to all customs, “the ancient customs of a people are changed, public 13 morality destroyed, religious beliefs disturbed, and the spell of tradition broken . . .”15 How and why this happens is a reflection for another time, but the reality is that customs change. In truth, customs that are longstanding can change rather quickly given the right social shift. One example in contemporary American society is the traditional gesture of meeting or greeting being a handshake. The Covid pandemic has drastically and rather quickly altered that custom. No doubt, other gestures, such as the fist-bump or elbow-tap, may take the place of the handshake, regardless, our social interactions will establish a means by imposing order to the social situations of meeting and greeting one another. It has also been observed that customs are not merely for ordering our social lives but there are also customs and habits for private life. Functionally, “the habits of private life are continued in public . . .”16 according to Tocqueville. By extension and even expansion of societal conditions, social settings, and governing laws are all intertwined with domestic habits of the wider ethos of democracy.17

A final observation about custom as ordering forms, one can see that similar to family heirlooms, many customs and opinions are passed down from generation to generation. These are inherited in a parallel manner and often received without any questions.18 These familial customs and opinions can be so strong that even after a family member

15 Ibid., 642.

16 Tocqueville, Democracy in America , 621.

17 Ibid., 676.

18 Ibid., 601, 65.