A Philosophy of Society: The Cognitive Structures of Social Existence

A Philosophy of Society The theory of existence highlights the tension between the empirical phenomena and the cognitive structure that explains the phenomena. The physical world differs from the world which people imagine is society. The concepts of nation and society evade our attempts at definition. Philosophy offers a way of analyzing these concepts. Reworking Aristotle´s concepts of substance and category provides a tool for studying the social reality. The social sciences require an elucidatory definition of society. Sociologists are focused on the empirical within society but not on what society is. Aristotle´s social human forms a society, but this is the set of set theory. Rousseau´s social contract and Hobbes ‘ social control of people arise from the cognitive structure of set theory. Set theory is complemented by Uuno Saarnio´s typology of the relations of the parts within a whole. Society and the nation are wholes and can be studied based on Saarnio´s typology. Leibniz ‘doctrine of toleration provides a determination of the social. Society becomes tolerantia ecclesiastica. The spheres of toleration are wholes with parts.