The disobedience to social norms: fissures in the ontology of the social reality

Abstract

This study offers an ontological interpretation of one of the phenomenon reported the most by the informative media recently: the disobedience to social norms by people. The article is mainly focused on the cases in which it is assumed that the indifference towards the norms is caused by the condition of the socially privileged. It proposes that the disobedience to norms, more than being a matter of social inequality, is the symptomatology of important fissures in the ontology of the social reality. This article comprises three parts: the first one describes several cases presented by the media as representative regarding the disobedience to social norms, especially those that are interpreted as a matter of abuse of the social privilege; the second part presents a conception of social norms (based on several works conducted by John Austin, Ulises Moulines and Gottlob Frege) and their value for the construction of the social ontology; and the third part describes several essential features of the ontology of the social reality based on the proposal of philosopher John Searle. Finally, the article concludes that the disobedience to social norms undermines the modes of existence of the social reality, and that the cases interpreted by the media as a matter of social inequality require an interpretation that takes into account the structure of the social reality.