society is an inconceivable thing--a non-man. Humankind in its
entirety lives in social groups that are still, today, very numerous
and diverse, varying in importance and organization from the tribes of
Central Africa to the great Western Empires. These various societies
are fractions of the human species each one of them endowed with a
unified organization. And as there is no unique organization of the
human species, there is not "one" but there are "several" human
societies. Humanity therefore exists solely as a biological concept
not as a social one.

Each society on the other hand exists in the unity of both its
biological and its social contents. Socially considered it is a
fraction of the human species endowed with unity of organization for
the attainment of the peculiar ends of the species.

This definition brings out all the elements of the social phenomenon
and not merely those relating to the preservation and perpetuation of
the species. For man is not solely matter; and the ends of the human
species, far from being the materialistic ones we have in common with
other animals, are, rather, and predominantly, the spiritual
finalities which are peculiar to man and which every form of society
strives to attain as well as its stage of social development allows.
Thus the organization of every social group is more or less pervaded
by the spiritual influxes of: unity of language, of culture, of
religion, of tradition, of customs, and in general of feeling and of
volition, which are as essential as the material elements: unity of
economic interests, of living conditions, and of territory. The
definition given above demonstrates another truth, which has been
ignored by the political doctrines that for the last four centuries
have been the foundations of political systems, viz., that the social