ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the conception of society as an ethical structure—a more or less unified system of purposes embodied in institutions and in established relationships, all subordinated to a common end and willed by the society as a whole. It explains part of the relation of the individual members to their society, so far as this relation is expressed in the word citizenship; and also, in part, the relation of separate institutions to the Great Institution and to its general aim. The chapter argues that in every form of society, and in every stage of social development, the place and work, the social value and significance, of all the members are determined by the existing social structure and function. It considers the application of the citizen-conception to the interpretation of some of the institutions of the social life, and also to the interpretation of some of the necessary changes which are taking place in the content of those institutions.
