Axioms

Axiom 1

Social phenomena and processes can be described and explained in terms of civilisation elements and their interrelationships.

Explanation. This axiom is the fundamental analytical point of departure of the theory. It assumes that social phenomena can meaningfully be investigated by examining con­ceptions and assumptions about reality, norms and values, behavioural repertoires, goals and ideals, and the ways in which these elements are interrelated.It does not claim that social phenomena cannot also be meaningfully described and in­vestigated in other ways. Nor does the axiom itself explain how these elements arise, are transmitted or change. Those are subjects of the theory itself.Because civilisation elements perform a descriptive and explanatory function within this theory, they must in principle be empirically ascertainable when the theory is applied. This does not mean that they must always be consciously accessible or capable of verbal formulation by the individual. Unconsciously operative civilisation elements may also be included in the analysis, provided that they can be reconstructed with sufficient reliabil­ity from statements, choices, judgements, conduct, responses or other observable indica­tors. A presumed civilisation element that cannot in principle be made empirically ascer­tainable cannot perform a descriptive or explanatory function within this theory.A marriage, for example, may be investigated by examining conceptions of partnership, norms concerning fidelity and responsibility, customary courses of action within the household, and ideas about what marriage ought to mean or achieve. An enterprise may be investigated in the same way by examining conceptions of authority and expertise, norms concerning cooperation, customary courses of action and shared goals. The state, too, may be described in this way without making it in advance the model for all other social associations.The axiom thus makes it possible to investigate very different social phenomena with the same general conceptual framework and to compare them with one another.

Axiom 2

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.

Axiom 3

Within this theory, any a priori explanation of social phenomena or processes is valid only insofar as it can be derived from the theory.

Explanation. This axiom prevents explanations of social processes from being assumed before the analysis has taken place.
Many existing theories of society attribute fundamental explanatory significance to par­ticular social relations or oppositions. Social change is explained, for example, in terms of class struggle, economic interests, property, struggles for power among elites, techno­logical development, cultural conflicts, religion, relations between the sexes or the inter­ests of the state.Within this theory, such explanations are neither accepted nor rejected in advance.Class differences may prove decisive in a particular social process. Economic interests may have great explanatory significance. Elites may direct or obstruct change. Techno­logical developments may transform existing relations profoundly. But this must emerge from the theoretical analysis in each individual case.The axiom therefore grants no existing theory of society a prior position of preference. The explanatory significance of class, property, elites, technology, religion, the state or other factors must follow from the analysis.

Axiom 4

The persistence of social properties does not depend on the persistence of their individual bearers.

Explanation. Social phenomena are always borne by individuals, but their continued ex­istence need not depend on the continued existence of those same individuals.A university may retain its norms, customs, educational practices and institutional char­acteristics while lecturers, administrators and students are continually replaced. An as­sociation may continue to exist for decades or centuries although none of its original members is still alive. A language persists although every generation of speakers is even­tually replaced by another. Norms concerning property, marriage, authority or appropri­ate conduct may likewise outlive the individuals who bear them at any particular time.The axiom states only that this possibility of persistence is assumed. Individuals are nec­essary for the existence and functioning of societies, but social continuity need not coin­cide with the biological continuity of those individuals. The mechanisms through which social properties can be continued across successive individuals – for example through transmission, internalisation, reproduction, institutionalisation or recording in texts, rules and customs – belong to the theory itself.Individuals are necessary for the existence and functioning of societies, but social conti­nuity does not depend on the biological continuity of the same individuals.