Society and Member

'Member' sometimes means 'limb', sometimes an 'item in a set'. This distinguishable-isolable contrast can be expressed as that between a part and an element. Accordingly, one of the fundamental questions in Political Philosophy is whether a member of a society is a part of it, or an element in it. Rousseau and Marx are among those who advocate the former, Locke and Smith, the latter. Supporting the latter is the empirical evidence of the spatio-temporal and behavioral dissociation of people, while that of the former is the biological unity of the race. The Theological thesis of the existence of an individual Soul thus has important Poltical implications, indicative of the profound Philosophical grounds that inform the usual rhetoric.