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From: baba@spar.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Explorations of "social-interest": Origins of Human Society
Message-ID: <383@spar.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Jul-85 18:02:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: spar.383
Posted: Fri Jul  5 18:02:49 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 20:13:25 EDT
References: <657@whuxl.UUCP> <2380051@acf4.UUCP> <373@spar.UUCP> <321@kontron.UUCP>
Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA
Lines: 25

> > > Human beings are individals.  They form societies for mutual benefit,
> > > i.e., to facilitate achievement of their individual goals.
> > > 
> > > 						Mike Sykora
> > 
> > Can you cite a single instance of a lasting human society (not a club 
> > or other special-interest organization) being formed by the rational 
> > agreement of otherwise atomic human beings?  If not, on what basis are 
> > you making this assertion?   There is disagreement among anthropologists 
> > about how human societies form and develop, but it would appear that man
> > is an *instinctively* social animal.  Do you have evidence to the contrary?
> > 
> > 						Baba
> 
> Plymouth Compact.  The original government of Rhode Island.
> 
> Those come right off the top of my head.
>
>						Clayton Cramer

You should dig deeper, then. The parties to the cited agreements were
already socialized in English culture, with established and agreed-upon
notions of individual and familial obligation, commerce, and common law.

						Baba