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| Author | Robert Ardrey |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Berdine Ardrey (née Grunewald) |
| Language | English |
| Series | Nature of Man Series |
| Subjects | Paleoanthropology Human evolution |
| Published |
|
| Media type | |
| Pages | 404 |
| ISBN | 978-0689103476 |
| Preceded by | The Territorial Imperative |
| Followed by | The Hunting Hypothesis |
The Social Contract: A Personal Inquiry into the Evolutionary Sources of Order and Disorder is a 1970 book by Robert Ardrey. It is the third in his four-book Nature of Man Series.
The book extended Ardrey's refutation of the prevailing conviction within social sciences that all social behavior is purely learned and not governed by innate patterns. Through interwoven analyses of animals and human social structures Ardrey argued that inherited evolutionary traits are an important determining factor in social behavior.
Ardrey dedicated The Social Contract to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, after whose 1762 work the book was titled.[1]
- ^ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. "Books of the Times: Lore and Order." The New York Times, 5 October 1970