Universal Social Right
Chapter 4
The different extension possible to the science of social Right
139. The different ways of classifying societies which we have outlined in the preceding chapters show clearly the great extension of social Right. Social Right corresponds in fact to that concept of society which is taken as the basis of this Right. It follows that there will be as many ways of dealing with social Right as there are concepts of society resulting from our classifications. If the concept of society taken as the starting point is broad, that is, rather indeterminate, the resultant social Right will also be broad; if restricted, the resultant social Right will also be restricted.
140. Again, when the general concept of society is determined, each of the determined concepts embraces and appropriates only a few of the various determinations. A single determined concept cannot, therefore, equal the breadth of the indeterminate concept which virtually contains in itself all possible determinations; several determined concepts are needed to equal a single indeterminate concept. The necessity of such a plurality of concepts serves as a spring for a plurality of possible societies, and hence for the classification of societies. But plurality of possible societies has as a consequence plurality of social Rights and their classification. Every possible, more or less broad way of dealing with social Right is indicated therefore in the various ways of classifying the concepts of societies. If the enumeration is complete, we have a kind of plan of the science of right, a plan found in each of the concepts of society, a plan on which the corresponding social Right can be built up.
141. I think it can only be helpful if I list the classifications of the more or less abstract, determined concepts of society proposed in the preceding chapters. Hence the following schema:
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