This was a key concept developed by Hutcheson as a means to overcome Ireland’s religious divisions and has since been adopted by most modern liberal democracies as a cornerstone of their constitutions. Simply civic society means removing questions of religion and ethnic identity as much as possible from the public arena and making them purely private, personal affairs to be kept at home and not used as references for either public or civic policy and decision making.

There should be a clear public domain, from government to economics and socialising, which operates on objective, rational lines to the benefit of inclusive public debate and equality. This would exclude subjective matters of belief which cannot be either quantified or objectively ascertained, such as religion and its associated doctrines, and hence are purely subjective, speculative or emotional states of mind, no matter how sincerely held.

Public business and affairs should be limited to those objectively quantifiable and calculable matters where rational examination of what is good, e.g. public health or economic policies, can be rationally examined in terms of what is objectively best for the community and the greatest number of individuals via rational analysis. This precludes religion since its premises are entirely subjective and non-quantifiable. Thus all should be free to practice what they like in private, but not bring it into the public realm.