Morality as Social Structure

Abstract

We are ready to talk about social ethics, but first, a few definitions are in order. I define society as that social organization within a culture whose boundaries are recognized. I define culture as the works of man and their effects (including of course their effects on man). Thus “France” is a society within the culture of European, or “western” civilization. The elements of culture are loosely agglomerated elements swimming in a medium of less agglomerated similar elements. Societies are more organized; they may be equal in extent with a culture or contained within it as one member of a set. But a society is at best a partially-ordered system in which a definite structure has been put together from indefinite components.