the.com/society
The agreement to pretend strangers' rules matter more than your own impulses.
means The organized community of people living together under shared customs, institutions, and rules.
from From French société, from Latin societas (fellowship, alliance), built on socius meaning 'companion' or 'ally' — the same root that gives us 'associate' and 'social.' At its heart, the word always meant people bound together as partners, long before it came to mean the polite machinery of manners and institutions.
- root word
- socius also gives us associate and sociable
- earliest use
- 14th century English meant companionship, not institutions
- size paradox
- works better with strangers than small tight tribes
- Adam Smith
- called it held together by mutual usefulness, not love