What Is Meant
This meaning is understood to mean that the destruction of villages does not occur because of one person or a single incident, but rather when injustice becomes the dominant characteristic of the group’s conduct. Here, the description of injustice pertains to the general reality of the village, not to isolated individuals; therefore, this destruction is presented as a social law.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: historical
- Argument movement: the destruction of villages occurs when injustice becomes a collective trait.
- Core terms: destruction, villages, injustice, group.
- Degree of centrality: pivotal.
The atom links the fate of the group to its general conduct, thus understanding destruction as a social outcome generated by the spread of injustice, not by an isolated individual event.
Reading Aids
Basis
- Supporting text: “The destruction of villages is linked to the spread of injustice collectively, not to the acts of isolated individuals.”
The Basis’s Location in the Book
- Book: State and Society.
- Location: in the middle section of the book
- Type of basis: proximate evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: the destruction of villages is a divine law
- Reading note: the text links the destruction of villages to a divine and collective law, not to an individual supplication, which is close to the atom.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom draws on more than one witness or on a clear combination of closely related expressions.
- Reason for classification: the passages state that the destruction of villages is tied to collective injustice.
- Limits of reading: the wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted verbatim.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares for it.
Editorial Note
The social law was made the center of meaning.