Introduction

In presenting a book on the pair private/public, I wish to accompany the reader on a journey into the world of the conceptual conventions and tacit assumptions which underlie both everyday communication and theoretical reflection. I state the obvious in saying that the terms private and public are widely used in our society. Ordinary people, politicians, scholars, men and women of the law, and so on, all talk of private and public industry, private beliefs and public opinion, the sanctity of privacy, and the dangers of secrecy in political decision-making. They all trust that the audience will share the denotations that each user assigns to the term.