原子人、個人自主與契約論自由主義

Atomic Man, Autonomy, and the Social Contract Liberalism

自由主義以個人主義為其不可或缺之一環，其所謂的個人，在英美社會契約傳統內，是一種除理智與自由或自主外，別無其他屬性的人，故稱「原子人」。單從概念內涵看，原子人可指任何人，是社會契約版自由主義有普遍性的根據，也是用以說明國家之必要性，甚至道德上正當性的概念工具。

Modern Liberalism consists, among others, in individualism, in which the individual refers to one who is rational, free and nothing else. It is thus dubbed as“atomic man,”as it has no character whatsoever. Atomic man is often taken as coming from the theories of Social Contract, those of Hobbes and Locke in particular, though the two indeed contribute to this concept only partially.