What is meant
Civil society is the society in which freedoms and individual rights are safeguarded, and in which creativity and work are preserved It is also associated with diligence, gain, thrift, and the freedom of human choice
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: Political
- Movement of the argument: It links civil society to safeguarding rights, the freedom of choice, and creativity.
- Key terms: civil society, creativity, work, freedom.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
It makes civil society a framework for protecting freedoms and individual rights, while safeguarding creativity, work, diligence, and gain. The atom moves society from mere organization to the care of productive human action.
Links that help with reading
Basis
- Supporting text: “The passage links civil society with the safeguarding of creativity, work, diligence, gain, thrift, and the freedom of human choice”.
Place of support in the book
- Book: Religion and Power.
- Location: In the final section of the book, within the enumeration of safeguarded rights.
- Type of support: Close evidence.
- Marker for verification: Material and intellectual creativity are safeguarded
- Reading note: This location is suitable as evidence because it explicitly mentions the safeguarding of creativity, work, diligence, gain, thrift, and the freedom of choice.
Degree of documentation
- Level: Structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom rests on more than one witness or on a clear composition of closely related phrases.
- Reason for classification: The two witnesses explicitly mention safeguarding creativity and work, and individual rights.
- Limits of reading: The formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted word for word.
Its function in the book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a result on which what follows in the course of the argument depends.
Editorial note
The summary focuses on the civil function as stated in the witness.