What is a Society, Nation, State, Civilization?

Society

‘Society’ comes from the Latin socius which means companion which is an abstract term.

This matches our defintion of society as a metaphysical organism that is made up of individual organisms having a common interest.

Animals often do not act on common interest. However, there are few instances where they do work together and thus can be called a society.

Nation

‘Nation’ comes from the Latin natus which refers to birth. Thus, a nation can have two meanings:

1. The place where a person was born – this leads to nationality
2. The ethnicity of the person at birth – this leads to ‘Cherokee nation’ if one’s parents are both Cherokee

State

We define a state as a society that is unified with laws and is therefore non-arbitrary.

• Its opposites are kingdoms, tribes, and nations, which are arbitrary.

Unlike a nation that has physical attributes such as a place of birth and race of parents, a state is an abstract idea.

A state has derivative ideas:

• A nation-state is a collection of tribes that has evolved to govern itself.
• A city-state is a city that has defined its society.

A state can merge with other states and become a United States or European Union, or split up like former Soviet states. The next evolution is the global state.

Civilization

A state can become a civilization if it adopts an ideology. The physical manifestations that a state is capable of ideology is when they have all of the following:

1. Dress – This represents a refined culture
2. Script – This represents communication and knowledge
3. The wheel – This represents technology
4. Agriculture – This represents food production and continuity

We define an ideology as a belief system that has a central idea. For example:

• Nazi ideology is based on the supremacy of the Aryans
• Islamic ideology is based on Prophet Mohammad being the Messenger of God
• Confucian ideology is based on Confucius’ policies and rituals

Therefore, a civilization implies intellectual advancement as to have a hierarchy of ideas, mutually connected to cause and effect.

Being civilized means that you know your actions have an effect in space and time, and so you are more cognizant of your actions unlike barbarians and savages who do not think of consequences.

Culture

Culture is the personality of a society-organism just as a single organism has his own personality.

Savages, Barbarians, and Civilizations all have culture.

Animals have individual personality. But animal societies do not have a culture since their society is for hunting or basic life processes which can be achieved mechanistically without any personality.