Self and Society

Presently, the frontier is moral, not physical, said John Dewey.

The fundamental moral question exists as a frontier between the self and society. How am I to act toward society, and what can I reasonably expect from my fellow citizens? (1)

If one takes Koestler's notion of the holon (2) seriously, then the answer lies in the dialect between self and society. The virutous citizen contributes to the well-being of his community by serving as a nourishing presence in it. The individual fluorishes in community, and communites flourish by and through the healthy relationships among its individuals.

NOTES

(1) Benhabib (1992) suggests that feminists, post-modernists, pragmatists, and communitarians have offered a useful counternarrative to the dominant "unencumbered individual" story. Steiner makes a similar observation. As do Hall and Ames. So too did Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohommed. And in the American tradition, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jeffereson, and John Dewey come to mind.

(2) A holon is any phenomena that is simultaneously an integral whole, and a part of something else. For example, an hydrogen atom is an integral whole, and when combined with another hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom, is a part of a water molecule. People are integral wholes and also parts of the social and cultural systems they inhabit.