The model, or concept, of society-as-organism is traced by Walter M. Simon from Plato ('the organic theory of society'),[1] and by George R. MacLay from Aristotle (384–322 BCE) through 19th-century and later thinkers, including the French philosopher and founder of sociology, Auguste Comte, the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle,[2] the English philosopher and polymath Herbert Spencer,[3] and the French sociologist Émile Durkheim.
[4] According to Durkheim, the more specialized the function of an organism or society, the greater its development, and vice versa.
New social forms will not be provided by nature but can emerge only from the human 'I' through real, person-to-person understanding—that is, when the needs of others become a matter of direct experience for us.
[5] David Sloan Wilson, in his 2002 book, Darwin's Cathedral, applies his multilevel selection theory to social groups and proposes to think of society as an organism.
Human groups thus function as single units rather than mere collections of individuals.