Axiom 2 – Individual and social civilisation

Individual civilisation and social civilisation are analytically distinguishable.

• Explanation. This axiom makes it possible to distinguish between the individual and the social levels of analysis.An individual may, for example, reject a particular norm while that norm continues to be generally applied within an association, enterprise or state and remains embedded in rules or institutions. Conversely, an individual may hold a new view that is scarcely shared socially.Without this distinction, changes in individual views would immediately have to be re­garded as social change. Nor would it be possible to explain why a social phenomenon can persist while individual persons begin to think differently about it.In the subsequent theory, this analytical distinction is developed further through con­cepts such as personal civilisation and circle civilisation. The theory also investigates how the two levels influence each other. Those reciprocal relationships, however, belong to the theory and not to the axiom itself.