抄録
The aim of this paper is to explore history of the concept of public opinion. The main focus is to clarify theoretical thoughts which are discussed by many philosophers from the ancient Greek to modern age about the concept of public opinion. Therefore, I regard this paper as a part of intellectual history which was born from the discussion and theory by the arguments about the nature of public opinion. First, after introduction of analyzing the arguments about people's opinion being made such like Plato and Aristotle, discussions of T. Hobbes, J. Locke and intellectuals in 18 century about the public opinion are examined. Second, the theory of public opinion by J. Bentham and J.S. Mill in 19 century is discussed, and the transformation from collective public opinion to individualistic public opinion is also explained. Third, after discussing the concept of public opinion in J. Bryce's Modern Democracies in late 19 century and the theories in W. Lippmann's Public Opinion and J. Dewey's The Public And Its Problems in early 20 century are studied, I will show some the implications of the debate of W. Lippmann and J. Dewey to contemporary public opinion studies. Finally, I will signify the study of historical approach in public opinion following some discussion of development of 20 century.
