Филозофско порекло теорије друштвеног уговора
The philosophical origin of the social contract theory

Summary/Abstract: This paper shows the origin of the idea of a social contract in Greek ancient philosophy. The Greeks first discovered this idea in their mythological and cosmological notions. Sophists developed it on the basis of natural law. During its evolution in Greek ancient philosophy the social contract was differently understood: sometimes in a unity with natural law, sometimes in opposition to it. Socrates pointed out the abstract nature of the social contract, while Plato and Aristotle tried to solve the contradictions set by the sophists. The origins of these ideas are very important, because modern and contemporary theories of social contract which use both different customary language and are based on different rationalization of the notion of nature are in part developed on a logic similar to that which can be found in Greek ancient philosophy.

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