ABSTRACT
Except in the fields of philology and logic, there are probably few cases in which one would be justified in devoting a whole article to the meaning of a single word. Nothing brings more clearly to light the role played in our thinking by our interpretation of the meaning of ‘social’ than the significant fact that in the course of the last few decades the word has, in all languages, to an ever increasing degree taken the place of the word ‘moral’ or simply ‘good’. The whole conception of social conduct is most closely linked, therefore, with a desire for a comprehensive blueprint of the social scene as a whole and a code of social conduct based upon it in accordance with a uniform and orderly plan.
