Rights in Civil Society - Section Two
Chapter 3
The relationship between the organs and actions of society
2401. I have distinguished governmental functions and the different dynamics into which they are divided according to the aims which government intends to attain with them. These aims of functions are the elementary parts of the complex end of society. As the end of civil society is the regulation of the modality of rights, so the end of a social function can only be a part of this regulation.
2402. Society, however, has to perform several actions to obtain the end of a given social function. The aim is not reached by a single action, but by several actions together.
2403. This happens partly through the nature of the acting subject, and partly through the nature of the object to which the subject's action tends. Relative to the subject, the human being and to a greater extent society, composed of human beings, is an entity of several parts. Consequently, they obtain what they want only by performing several actions and bringing into play several organs. For example, anyone who wishes to eat, or do anything else, has to carry out at least three actions: 1. conceive intellectually what he wishes to do; 2. decide to do it with an act of will; 3. carry it out with locomotive forces.
2404. Relative to the object, the good desired is often unattainable without several simultaneous or successive actions, granted the limitation of the actions themselves and the subject who carries them out. For example, if I want to eat some bread, I have to: 1. sow the wheat; 2. harvest it; 3. mill it; 4. make dough with the flour; 5. cook the dough; 6. eat it.
2405. Thus the functions of society are distinguished according to the elementary aims making up the social end. Similarly the actions of society are distinguished according to the law of social activity resulting from the nature both of the subject and the object. Again, the multiplicity of these actions multiplies the organs of society which must carry them out.