ABSTRACT
'Individualism' and 'Man and Society' are respectively Victorian and A modern cliches which die on our lips. Their use seems to reflect an inflated notion of the Renaissance which is out of date. If conceptions of the individual have ever changed we are inclined to think that this happened over a much longer period and by social pressures rather than the circulation of ideas. Such sceptical and material doubts have silenced the voicing of expressions which in fact deserve to enjoy continued currency. It will be argued that the humanists found in ancient literature a novel idea of the individual as well as of man in society.
