Society And its Purpose
Book 1 - Society
CHAPTER 7
Continuation
104. We must be careful however not to err by taking social freedom for what it is not. If we bear in mind what has already been said, we see that social freedom consists in this: all associated persons have without distinction the concept of end; none of them can be considered merely as a means to the good of the others.
105. Society is made for the sake of all its members. The good that it produces must be shared equally by them all, according to an equal law. No one is obliged to work for the others without receiving a share for his own work. This is social freedom. When however a person is obliged to work for another without working for a good common to them both, servitude is present. It would be a great mistake therefore to think that social freedom consists in a member’s being discharged from every obligation and labour.
106. The nature of society is that of a union entered into by many individuals for the end of obtaining a particular good. It is clear that all those entering submit and oblige themselves to all the laws deriving from the nature of the association.
107. All these laws can be summarised in two general laws:
1. Each person, by becoming a member, is obliged to seek the common good of the
other members, and to contribute to its production or acquisition in the way
decided; in other words, each contributes through his personal acts or through
his external possessions.
2. Each person must receive a share of the good acquired by the association, in
proportion to his personal effort or external possessions.
No member of a society can excuse himself from these fundamental social laws
which are the first constituents of social order.
108. We can therefore deduce that associates sin against the society to
which they belong:
1. if they seek as end their own good alone and not the common good, neglecting
or even harming the common good;
2. if they do not contribute to the acquisition of the social good by the
agreed, fixed means.
In the first case, they sin against social benevolence; in the second,
against social activity, the two summary duties of every society.