Chapter 2.
4. Person and society
Rosmini is not content with providing a description of the human being which is limited to the essential characteristics of person. These incommunicable elements depend for their growth and development on the reaction between persons within a social context, and it is this context which forms the frame of reference for the other branches of philosophy to which Rosmini applied himself. In particular he devoted his attention to the philosophy of education, of human rights, of politics and art. We shall deal with each of them in turn.
It will be helpful, however, if we first consider Rosmini's general description of society (1). For him, a society can never be merely an external organisation. It is rather a group of persons who will to join together for the attainment of a common end. The key to proper understanding of any society lies in the willed desire of the members to be together for the sake of reaching a goal that would either be impossible or difficult to achieve otherwise. This willed desire may be ontologically irrevocable, as in the case of marriage, or revocable, as in the case of societies which may be dissolved with the members' consent, but in every society some act of will is needed for constituting the corporate body. Without this act of will, the external apparatus of society is a delusion.
Notes
(1). Cf. especially La società e il suo fine (Society and its Purpose) [1837], Milan 1858; Della sommaria cagione per la quale stanno o si rovinano le umane società (The Summary Cause for the Stability or Downfall of Human Societies) [1837], Venice 1945.