On Fri, 23 Apr 1999 20:59:44 -0700 Gar Lipow <lipowg at sprintmail.com>
writes:
>
>
>You see, the idea of the social contract was not new, but went back to
>at least mediaeval times and probably to before Aristotle.
The earliest discussion that I am aware of the social contract can be found in Book II of Plato's "The Republic." There Plato gave a critique of this idea which apparently was already enjoying currency among the sophists. Later in antiquity the Epicurean school took up the notion of the social contract as the basis for legitimate government.
Jim F.
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