1. The Implications of Human Association. Society is one word,
but many things. Men associate together in all kinds of ways and
for all kinds of purposes. One man is concerned in a multitude
of diverse groups, in which his associates may be quite
different. It often seems as if they had nothing in common
except that they are modes of associated life. Within every
larger social organization there are numerous minor groups: not
only political subdivisions, but industrial, scientific,
religious, associations. There are political parties with
differing aims, social sets, cliques, gangs, corporations,
partnerships, groups bound closely together by ties of blood, and
so on in endless variety. In many modern states and in some
ancient, there is great diversity of populations, of varying
languages, religions, moral codes, and traditions. From this
standpoint, many a minor political unit, one of our large cities,
for example, is a congeries of loosely associated societies,
rather than an inclusive and permeating community of action and
thought. (See ante, p. 20.)
The terms society, community, are thus ambiguous. They have both
a eulogistic or normative sense, and a descriptive sense; a
meaning de jure and a meaning de facto. In social philosophy,
the former connotation is almost always uppermost. Society is
conceived as one by its very nature. The qualities which
accompany this unity, praiseworthy community of purpose and
welfare, loyalty to public ends, mutuality of sympathy, are
emphasized.
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