Writing and the Concept of Law in Ancient Greece

Abstract

The concept of law is too often treated as an a-historical category; similarly, the impact of writing (when used as a medium of communication) on the conceptual order and on the social structure of a society has been little analyzed. These two problems are brought together in the context of ancient Greece to demonstrate how the concepts "law" and "justice" developed in relation to changes in the social structure of that society. The impact of writing on Greek society not only produced the situation in which these changes took place but also helped form those changes.