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\NhatWhat, exactly, is civil society?

Civil society is the association of human beings in a11 aspects of their lives on the basis of (1) a mutual recognition of their dignity as persons (construed broadly as including pre-, post-, and quasi-persons); and (2) the mutual respect of rights demanded by such mutual recognition.

Among the aspects of human lives that are ubiquitous and fundamental are their moral aspect and their political aspect. Their moral aspect is present in all other aspects insofar as they all involve actions affecting the interests ofothersof others. Their political aspect, broadly considered, is also present in all other aspects insofar as they Inust must all be somehow structured or ordered, socially as well as culturally, such structuring or ordering itself being the resuh result of human actions. Their political aspect, strictly considered, is also present in all other aspects insofar as the whole of their common life, in all of its aspects, Inust must also be structured or ordered, which is to say, goverlledgoverned, and this, too, is the result of human actions.

Civil society is the association of human beings in a11 aspects of their lives on the basis of

Among the aspects of human lives that are ubiquitous and fundamental are their

20 April 2003; rev. 7 November 2009