The Social Construction of Reality

Coleman: The social wars are what give us a way to identify ourselves. If we're just on an island by yourself, especially if you're just dropped there from birth and are not shipwrecked later, then you'll have no sense of self whatsoever. You'll be purely an animal. And so that seems to be an argument coming out of Berger's account. Coleman: There really isn't a hard and fast distinction between the kind of social rules that are optional, you could get rid of them or the kind that you absolutely need those.