A given number of individuals, therefore, can be society to a greater or lesser degree, just as a given number of sounds can be music to a greater or lesser degree. Society as a form presents the ideality of a world awaiting actualization in history.

DEFINE: Defines society as a gradational form on a spectrum, not a binary condition — analogous to how collections of sounds become music by degree.

DEFINE: Frère Bruno Latour (or the author) defines society as a form of 'ideality' — an ideal awaiting actualization — rather than a fixed state, drawing on a musical analogy.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 51