Jes Fabricius Møller :
Blood and inheritance -- the body as a metaphor for society in the 19th century

The organic metaphor, particularly the body as a metaphor for society, is traditionally connected to the ideology of eugenics and racism, but it has had a much wider use than that. Edmund Burkes concept of "inheritance" is a legal rather than a biological term. Fichtes use of the term is idealistic. In Denmark during the middle of the 19th century the body metaphor was used extensively by liberal reformers in city planning and national politics. At the end of the century the theories of society had become so de-idealized and "infected" by biology that it hardly makes any sense to call the use of organic metaphors "metaphorical". Many sociologists considered society itself as a biological entity. The biologistic view of society formed the basis of interventionist political theories and legitimized different kinds of collectivist ideologies including the Scandinavian welfare state.