2022 Volume 14 Issue 1 Pages 5-23
The norms about the ideal society （human relations） are enacted based on social policy. The norms are linked to the norms about human beings who comprise society （ideal human）. In this common topic, we focus on labor and life norms in the late modern period （i. e., end of the 19th century） and the present age （i. e., 20th century）. Moreover, we explain whom and what they attempted to include in and excluded from society. This paper provides an overview of various ideal human views that preceded the present as a background to the common topic.
In contrast to the pre-modern intellectual and non-universal ideal human, voluntarism has emerged as a counter to deterministic intellectualism since early modern. Along with concepts like “natural rights,” “human rights,” and “freedom,” the universalism that “anyone can do anything, anytime, anywhere” has gradually become the dominant principle. It is also the foundation for the universalism’s dominance which the human image has been transforming since the end of the modern period （from “strong and hefty” to “weak and inferior”）. This transformation has removed the basis for asserting the essential difference between male and female adults.
Annals of the Society for the Study of Social Policy
