The nation is a construct, not a unit for social analysis

Evidence

Herewith is expressed the profound relation between relativity and society, which is the most immediate demonstration of relativity in regard to the material of humanity: society is the supra-singular structure which is nonetheless not abstract. Through this concept historical life is spared the alternatives of having to run either in mere individuals or in abstract generalities. Society is the generality that has, simultaneously, concrete vitality. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 274 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Individual and society are, both for historical understanding and for normative judgment, methodological concepts. This is so either in that they divide given events and conditions among themselves or in that they deal with the unity of the given, which we cannot directly comprehend, by organizing it under two different points of view, comparable to the way a picture is considered now as a physiological and optical phenomenon, now as a cultural product, or now with respect to the technique of painting, now with respect to its content and aesthetic value. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 213 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: “The people” is itself a contested construct, not a fixed subject; Inner psychological mutation, not independence, is what generates national sovereignty; The Egyptian nation was constructed by institutions, not pre-existing. (+7 more)

Related

• Society’s development cannot be explained by physical laws of quantity. (similarity 0.80)
• Human essence is the ensemble of social relations, not an individual abstraction (similarity 0.79)
• Numbers name the intermediate agent between individual and society that neither alone can enact (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The Egyptian nation was constructed by institutions, not pre-existing. #exemplifies (0.80)
• Society is a concrete generality neither reducible to individuals nor abstract #qualifies (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 274
• Individual and society are methodological standpoints, not separable entities #contradicts (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 213
• Inner psychological mutation, not independence, is what generates national sovereignty #expands (0.65)
• Language and culture cannot confer national belonging without shared experience #expands (0.60) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 572
• Civilizing policies normalized the presence of subjects in a nation of citizens #expands (0.55)