Axiom 4 – Social continuity beyond individual bearers

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.