The Idea of the Social Contract in the History of ‘Agreementism’

One of the recurrent motifs in political thought is the idea of the social contract, according to which a society, a government, or moral principles depend for their existence on agreements between voluntary agents. This association between the social contract and “agreementism” implies that there is nothing about the terminology of contracts that distinguishes it from that of other types of agreements constitutive of normativity. This essay tests this assumption by surveying the terminology of the social contract and by proposing two hypotheses. The first is that all attempts at analysing the idea of the social contract require a formal conceptual frame of reference that is distinguishable from agreementism. The second is that social contract theories can be grouped into four trends, even if the authors of each of these trends are unable to form a coherent body of doctrine. These trends are the Iberian Catholic version of the Counter-Reformation; the Protestant individualist trend of the Enlightenment; the quasi-dialectical trend of the radical Enlightenment; and the contemporary trend of public morality.     

Early Miocene bivalves from the Cape Melville Formation,King George Island,West Antarctica

Seven species of marine bivalves, including six new taxa, are described from the Cape early Miocene Melville Formation which crops out on the Melville Peninsula, King George Island, West Antarctica. The bivalve assemblage includes representatives of the families Nuculidae, Ennucula frigida sp. nov., E. musculosa sp. nov.; Malletidae, Neilo (Neilo) rongelii sp. nov.; Sareptidae, Yoldia peninsularis sp. nov.; Limopsidae, Limopsis psimolis sp. nov.; Hiatellidae, Panopea (Panopea) sp. cf. P. regularis; and Pholadomyoida (Periploma acuta sp. nov.). Species studied come from four sedimentary sections measured in the upper part of the unit. Detailed morphologic features of nucloid and arcoid species are exceptionally well preserved and allow for the first time reconstruction of muscle insertions as well as dentition patterns of Cenozoic taxa. Known geological distribution of the species is in agreement with the early Miocene age assigned to the Cape Melville Formation. The bivalve fauna from Cape Melville Formation is the best known from Antarctic Miocene rocks, a time of complex geologic, paleogeographic and paleoclimatic changes in the continent. The new fauna introduces new taxonomic and palaeogeographic data that bear on the question of opening of sea gateways and distribution of Cenozoic biota around Antarctica.     

Reviews

AUSTRALIA AND THE COLONIAL QUESTION AT THE UNITED NATIONS. W. J. Hudson. Sydney University Press, 1970. ix, 214 pp. $6.

POLITICS AND CHANGE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DEVELOPMENT. Colin Leys (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 1969. xi, 289 pp. 45s. stg.

EXPERTS IN ASIA. A. H. Boxer. Australian National University Press. 180 pp. $6.

BACK IN ASIA. Daphne M. Keats. Australian National University Press. 190 pp. $4.50.

INDONESIAN POLITICAL THINKING. 1945–1965. Herbert Feith and Lance Castles (eds.). Cornell University Press, Ithaca & London, 1970. ix, 505 pp. $US13.50.

THE GROWTH OF A PARTY SYSTEM IN CEYLON. Calvin A. Woodward. Providence, R.I., Brown University Press, 1969. xiv, 338 pp. $8.50.

THE SECURITY OF CHINA. Arthur Huck. Chatto & Windus, London, 1970. 93 pp.

INDICTMENT WITHOUT TRIAL: THE CASE OF LIU SHAO‐CH'I. A. E. Kent. Australian National University. 68 pp. $A1.

GENEVA 1954: THE SETTLEMENT OF THE INDO‐CHINESE WAR. Robert F. Randle. Princeton U.P., 1969. 639 pp. $US17.50.

THE ESTRANGEMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN, 1917–35. Captain Malcolm D. Kennedy. Manchester University Press, 1969. x, 345 pp. $8.15.

THE U.S., INDIA, AND THE BOMB. Shelton L. Williams. The Johns Hopkins Press. $3.05.

ISSUES IN UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY. M. S. Rajan (ed.). Indian School of International Studies, New Delhi, July‐October, 1968. 244 pp. $US4.50.

FRENCH POLITICIANS AND ELECTIONS, 1951–1969. Philip M. Williams. Cambridge University Press, 1970. xviii, 313 pp. $3.

HOUSE OF REVIEW?: THE NEW SOUTH WALES LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, 1934–68. Ken Turner. Sydney University Press, 1969. $5.

THE HOUSE WILL DIVIDE. Don Whitington. Lansdowne Press, 1969. $4.50.     

Investigation Techniques for the Seismic Response Assessment of Buildings Located in Historical Centers

ABSTRACT

It is an acknowledged fact that historical centers, given its significance from the cultural and architectural viewpoint, bring further challenges in terms of maintenance planning, survey, and safety assessment. The preparation of an adequate investigation plan and the extent of data to be collected is highly reliant on many aspects, such as the category of the architectonic asset, the importance of the heritage site, or the resources available, for example. In what regards the seismic response assessment of urban cultural heritage assets located in historical centers, the amount and detail of data also depend on this article, scale of assessment, and current state of conservation and occupation. Within this framework, this article provides an overview of the state of the art of investigation techniques currently used in survey operations, which are currently available for improving the knowledge level of urban cultural heritage assets within historical centers, as a supporting tool for the seismic response assessment of such singular assets. Finally, acknowledging the lack of accuracy when evaluating the seismic response of an asset enclosed in aggregate as an isolated structure, this article also focuses on the identification of the main particularities inherent to buildings enclosed in aggregate.     

The smelting quarter of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville,Spain): the specialised copper industry in a political centre of the Guadalquivir Valley during the Third millennium BC (2750–2500 BC)

The first specialized copper industry of the Iberian Peninsula was developed at the start of the Third millennium BC with the appearance of mining-metallurgical settlements in its main mining district (the Pyrite Belt of the south-western). Between 2750 and 2500 BC, however, and right at the centre of the Guadalquivir Valley, the great farming settlements that ranked the territory developed a new level of metallurgic intensification with the creation of the first industrial quarters. As a way of explaining this new situation, we present the results of the systematic research (microspatial analysis; radiocarbon dating; petrologic, geochemical, metallographic and isotopic study of minerals, slag and products, …) carried out in one of them, the one developed in the main and largest political centre of the Guadalquivir Valley during the first half of the Third millennium BC: Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain).