In the same period, society comes to be seen not as an organic whole of interacting components, but as an aggregate of individual human beings, a social system with a life of its own, which presents itself to the individual as not itself quite human but rather as artificial, the result of a “social contract”. Being human is understood as being best achieved through being unique and distinctive, even when these collide with certain social norms. At the same time, there is an increasing awareness of what Charles Taylor (1989) calls “inwardness” or “internal space”. The result is a distinction between one’s private and unique individuality, and one’s public self (Taylor 1991; Trilling 1972).