It has all the characteristics of an ideal intentional society...

It has all the characteristics of an ideal intentional society, such as: The husband and wife choose each other intentionally and willingly; With a view to leading a common life, With common responsibility, and With reciprocal rights and obligations based on a definite social system accompanied by wholehearted cooperation to secure a better and more developed life for themselves and their children. Individual and society Man is a gregarious and social being.

There can be no doubt that the conditions of his life depend on the condi­tions of the society in which he lives. But how and to what extent? Is this dependence such that it does not in any way curtail the independence of an individual to mould his life according to his own choice? Or is it such that it makes him absolutely subservient to his social environment? Or is it neither this nor that but has some interme­diate position?

These are three different views regarding the relation of an individual with his social environment. We propose to explain them further.

It is the individual who is important According to this view, the main factor in moulding the life of every person is himself and not society, for society is nothing but a collection of individuals, who have learnt by experience that their desires will be better fulfilled if they cooperate with one another, and consequent on this experience they have been attracted to collective life.

Hence, their incentive to lead a collective life is actually their interest in the fulfilment of their personal desires. All the social systems have been devised by individuals to safeguard their own interests. Hence everywhere the hand of the individual is uppermost and it is his desire and action which play the basic role. The corruption of society also originates from the corrup­tion of the individuals. If every individual reform himself, the whole society will automatically be reformed.

It is the society that is important According to this view, the truth is diametrically opposite to what is maintained by those who say that it is the individual who is important. The exponents of this view hold that it is the society and the social man which are the material reality in this world and not an individual independent of others, for what we find on the face of the earth is only a collection of men mutually correlated and that is what is society.